Amplifying the Global South Before GIJTR launched its programs, the narrow range of approaches taken to engage with histories of violence globally was reinforced by the fact that funding for such work largely came from a limited pool of state donors in Europe and North America. This in turn perpetuated a global dynamic of transitional justice work that largely unfolded in states of the Global South, but whose practitioners and expertise were primarily based in the Global North. GIJTR disrupts this paradigm by centering the Global South in transitional justice knowledge production. Through its work, GIJTR shifts the power dynamics of who creates knowledge and on whose behalf. This specifically addresses criticism of the field—that in the past a handful of experts from the Global North informed transitional justice processes around the world. By building expertise in the Global South, GIJTR ensures there are new cohorts of Global South-based experts who can inform the field based on their own learned and lived experience. This shift has major implications for both GIJTR’s Consortium partners, particularly those based in the Global South, as well as its local partners. Engagement with GIJTR significantly enhances the reach of its partners, giving organizations in the Global South such as Asia Justice and Rights, CSVR and FAFG, new impetus and resources to draw on their regional expertise to achieve international impact—opportunities that did not exist before GIJTR. This new framework centering Global South experiences and expertise not only builds new capacity and breaks down negative stereotypes, but also results in more effective and efficient solutions to post-conflict challenges. GIJTR’s novel approach to knowledge production also elevates its local partners to be sought-after leaders in the field, fostering more Global South-based, survivor-focused and trauma-infused practice across the sector. For instance, a local GIJTR partner in Sri Lanka produced a report that was used to inform the June 2021 European Parliament resolution on Sri Lanka which now serves as an important tool to hold perpetrators accountable for their abuses against women. In South Sudan, after receiving training by GIJTR, local partners trained members of the
A representative from Constitution Hill, an ICSC member in South Africa, leading a tour of the historic site during a GIJTR exchange with local partners from Guinea.
“When you look at the first 20 years of what was happening in the sector, you had the very big international NGOs … and in many ways, I think what they controlled was what the discussion would be in many countries around the laws that set up these transitional justice mechanisms. They would also be doing all the training and to some extent directing where money should go and whose voices should be heard. And I think that by GIJTR including organizations from many different countries who have a specific expertise, either working with survivors or victims of torture and sexual violence, that has opened the space up a lot. And what that has meant is that you don’t have the dominance of the hegemon and that what you have are a conglomerate of organizations who…use GIJTR to actually get their voices heard.” —Global scholar, 2023
Technical Committee of South Sudan’s Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing to support their consultations with victims and survivors in a trauma- informed way.
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GIJTR’s Impact In Depth: External Spheres and Actors
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