Introduction:

The action is aimed at continuing to advance accountability, and the rule of law, affirming victims’ dignity, and promoting responsive institutions through increased engagement of victims and other CSOs with state institutions as a step towards coming to terms with past violations and preventing new ones.  

Objectives:

• Victims and other CSOs from Tigray and Amhara regions develop their capacities to prioritize and advocate solutions to address human rights violations, including gender-based ones, based on international standards and best practices;
• Victims and other CSOs from Oromia and Somali Region have the capacity and spaces to pursue their advocacy work more effectively;
• Victims and other CSOs in the four target regions effectively organize themselves and exchange experiences to develop joint action;
• Victims and other CSOs in the four target regions have spaces to increase their ability to interface with relevant state institutions encouraging the establishment and operationalization of effective, participatory, victim-centered, and gender-sensitive processes in the pursuit of justice, acknowledgment, and accountability.

Project Activities:

Activities will include desk reviews; research; production of policy briefs; filed missions in the target regions; mapping of the local stakeholders; workshops; consultations; training sessions; provision of technical assistance and capacity building; exchanges based on best practices and comparative experiences; continuous support (locally and remotely) to facilitate victim-centred and gender-sensitive dialogue, policy design, implementation and monitoring. 

Expected Results:

• Local organizations are mapped and assessed. 
• Consultations with victims and other CSOs on existing grievances are held and the response by state institutions is assessed.
• Victims and other CSOs organized in networks are able to reference comparative transitional justice experiences and to inform their actions.
• Small-scale advocacy plans are defined and implemented.
• Victims and other CSOs in Oromia and the Somali Region receive technical support to organize networks and advance their justice priorities.
• Small-scale advocacy plans are defined and implemented in Oromia and the Somali Region.
• Peer-to-peer exchanges among victims and other CSOs from the four target regions are held.
• Victims and other CSOs utilize new spaces to provide inputs to the relevant state institutions to ensure a victim-centered gender-sensitive approach to transitional justice.
• ICTJ Policy Brief.