Central African Republic (CAR) is currently at an important crossroads on the road to accountability for crimes committed during the conflict which has been active in recent years. In 2016, a mass grave was discovered near a peacekeeping base in Boali; the remains were of 12 people, including women and children, identified as individuals detained by peacekeepers in March 2014.

To assist national authorities, in 2017 JRR deployed a prosecutions expert to help gather additional evidence to strengthen prospects for justice. Today, the alleged perpetrators, who were serving as part of a peacekeeping force deployed to CAR, are currently awaiting trial in their home country. The evidence gathered in this context will be instrumental when the case is brought to justice.

Guatemala continues to deal with the legacy of a 36-year internal armed conflict, which saw massive human rights violations committed by military forces against indigenous populations, including extra-judicial killings and widespread sexual violence. After the conflict, victims’ associations and civil society groups laid the groundwork for accountability by leading investigations and advocating for justice to be served. Today, the Public Prosecutor’s Office continues to work with a variety of partners, to ensure serious crimes of the past are professionally investigated and brought to a court of law.

In collaboration with UNDP and under its Transitional Justice Accompaniment Program (PAJUST), JRR deployed an international legal expert to provide technical support to the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Moreover, as a way to reinforce the technical work realized by the international legal expert, JRR deployed three additional experts with extensive experience working for international criminal tribunals to further increase the capacities of the Human Rights Section’s staff of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the area of investigation and prosecution of international crimes.

The conflict in Iraq has had devastating consequences on civilians, with a disproportional impact on the many minority groups in Iraq who have been persecuted on the grounds of their religion and ethnicity. The Yazidi community in particular has been targeted by ISIL; men and boys have been systematically killed, and women and girls have been victims of abductions, rape, sexual slavery and killings.

In 2017, JRR deployed a SGBV Justice Expert to Yazda, a civil society organization providing humanitarian assistance to Yazidi survivors and supporting legal efforts for accountability. The JRR expert has provided mentoring to the organization’s staff on SGBV under international law, interview techniques and storage of information, as well as on the different avenues for criminal justice that may be available to survivors. Thanks to this ongoing mentorship, Yazda staff conducting documentation have an understanding of the legal definitions of SGBV, forms of liability under international law, and proof requirements in regards to those crimes, all of which are fundamental building blocks in Yazda’s ongoing work to secure accountability.

A widespread human rights and humanitarian crisis escalated in Myanmar in 2017 with the military’s targeting of the Rohingya Muslim population in Rakhine State in what is being called a campaign of ethnic cleansing. In March 2017, the UN Human Rights Council established a Fact-Finding Mission to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State. Briefings and statements from the Fact-Finding Mission point at human rights violations of the most serious kind, in all likelihood amounting to crimes under international law, with corroborated information on sexual and gender-based violence.

JRR deployed a SGBV investigator to the Fact-Finding Mission—through UN Women and in support of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)—to assist with the documentation of gender-based violence, as well as a military analyst, to support the Mission with gathering of information and analysis of structures of involved armed groups. The findings of the Mission will be reported to the Human Rights Council in September 2018.

The recent conflict in eastern Ukraine has resulted in thousands of deaths, including those of civilians, as well as widespread displacement. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine monitors and reports on developments on the ground throughout Ukraine, including the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. In April 2017, an armored OSCE vehicle was struck by an explosion in the non-government controlled area of Ukraine near Pryshyb, killing one paramedic and injuring two monitors from the SMM. In response to the event, the OSCE requested the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to assemble and deploy an Independent Forensic Investigation team.

JRR provided a forensic pathologist to assist in this first mission conducted by the IHFFC. A summary of the results of the investigation’s findings was made public in September, which determined that it was unlikely that the SMM had been the intended target of an attack. The findings further determined that the laying of this anti-vehicle mine was indiscriminate, and thus constituted a violation of international humanitarian law.