Bogotá, Colombia, April 24, 2025 — Today, the protection of human rights faces significant challenges, amid a global rise in narratives that question legal progress and undermine both national and international justice institutions. This trend erodes the rule of law and fosters conditions that enable the concentration of power and the use of violence—especially against the most vulnerable populations.
In this context, collective, coordinated, and sustained efforts are needed to uphold the mandate and effectiveness of international criminal justice. The work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) exerts a powerful influence on national jurisdictions in addressing mass violence. Only through the joint efforts of all relevant stakeholders—international and national institutions, civil society, academic communities, and victims—can we ensure access to justice and accountability for the gravest crimes enshrined in the Rome Statute: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Cooperation Between the ICC and States
The ICC, as the first permanent criminal court with jurisdiction to prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes affecting the international community, depends on active cooperation from States, particularly from their justice systems, to fulfil its mandate. This cooperation—rooted in principles of complementarity, partnership, and oversight—bolsters the global capacity for accountability and advances a more responsive, credible, and victim-centred international justice system.
Linkages with National Transitional Justice Processes
Effective international criminal justice is a cornerstone of transitional justice, especially in post-conflict or structurally violent contexts. Collaboration between international and national jurisdictions—such as Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)—enhances operational coordination, promotes the exchange of best practices, and enables more strategic prioritization of investigations.
International mechanisms lend support, oversight, and legitimacy to national processes, strengthening transitional justice efforts and ensuring victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition are upheld.
The Role of Civil Society
Civil society organizations play a vital role in this process. Their close ties to victims and affected communities allow them to contribute essential insights for monitoring national progress, informing decision-making, and bridging gaps between justice systems and historically marginalized populations.
Moreover, civil society actors are key to promoting access to justice and identifying gaps in institutional responses, helping shape a justice system that is inclusive, transparent, and transformative.
A Shared Commitment
Bringing justice closer to victims and ensuring that international criminal justice aligns effectively with national transitional justice processes requires a genuine commitment to unity in diversity. Only through collaboration, mutual recognition, and shared purpose can we build a global system that prevents the recurrence of atrocities and restores dignity to those who have endured serious human rights violations.
A Call to Action
From the International Forum on Comparative Experiences in Transitional Justice, international criminal justice calls on national and international institutions, civil society organizations, victims, human rights defenders, academics, researchers, and professionals committed to justice to join this collaborative initiative. Together, we can engage in a collective conversation and take coordinated action within this space for dialogue.
At Lawyers Without Borders Canada, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthening a global network of international justice, aligned with the ICC Prosecutor’s initiatives to foster dialogue, cooperation, and coordination among key actors in the fight against atrocities.
We firmly believe that strong international criminal justice must go hand in hand with transitional justice processes that seek truth, reparation, and non-repetition. Only by joining our voices, our memories, and our collective will can we weave a truly transformative justice network—one that honours victims and resolutely defends the core values of humanity.
Bogotá, Colombia, 24 of april 2025.