The Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) seeks applications for a collaborative program and mechanism to
respond rapidly to global, time-sensitive, and locally-led opportunities to
support transitional justice mechanisms and processes in order to promote
justice and accountability for atrocities, including genocide, war crimes, and
crimes against humanity.
The office supports the establishment and success of transitional
justice mechanisms and processes to redress legacies of abuse and prevent their
recurrence. These mechanisms and processes may be established by national
governments, regional or international organizations, and be formed as part of
any agreement between multiple parties.
GCJ believes that for transitional justice
processes to be effective they should be: deployed as part of a comprehensive
transitional justice strategy; transparent, independent and impartial; broadly
consultative and participatory; gender integrated; context-specific; supported
by civil society; designed to do no harm; and manage expectations through
outreach. As such, proposals are required to demonstrate empowerment of
civil society, nongovernmental actors, and community leaders, particularly from
disenfranchised communities, especially to integrate their perspectives into
formal processes.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate a strong
track record of responding to complex crises from a
lay-the–groundwork-for-transitional-justice perspective, with a particular
emphasis in the area of justice and accountability.
Program Objectives
Programming under the mechanism may include, but
is not limited to, one or more of the following areas and will be decided in
conjunction with GCJ:
- Collecting, preserving, and/or
analyzing evidence of atrocities, maintaining legal chain of custody of
evidence, including witness testimony, and sharing with appropriate
national authorities and multilateral accountability mechanisms.
Programs should consider inclusion of civil society, including medical and
legal professionals, where appropriate.
- Formulating and implementing
witness and victim protection strategies for transitional justice
initiatives, including courtroom justice.
- Gathering input and/or offering
technical advice and support for the establishment of transitional justice
mechanisms, including truth commissions, reparations programs, vetting and
lustration programs, criminal justice processes, and other guarantees of
non-recurrence.
- Training and educating lawyers,
judges, and investigators in the highest legal standards in the
investigation and prosecution of atrocity crimes
- Provide targeted training to
relevant officials on forensics and crime scene analysis, as well as trial
preparation, interviewing of witnesses, etc. from a forensics
perspective.
- Identifying opportunities to
lay the groundwork for transitional justice during unfolding crises or to
leverage unexpected opportunities to promote transitional justice.
Funding Information
- Estimated Length of Project
Period: Up to 24 months
- Estimated Number of Awards: 1
- Estimated Total Program
Funding: $2,000,000
- Estimated Award Ceiling:
$2,000,000
- Estimated Award Floor:
$2.000,000
Problem Statement
While transitional justice processes and the
advocacy work that leads up to their creation can take years or decades, there
are often discrete windows of opportunity that are critical to the
establishment of these processes and to their long-term impact and
success. Time is often of the essence during unfolding situations and
transitions. Some opportunities need to be addressed quickly to avoid
losing critical evidence, others to address breakthroughs in political will or
take advantage of the momentum created by civil society or the international
community. By their very nature, many of these contexts can be quite
fluid and require an ability to respond quickly to the opportunities
presented.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants include
U.S. or foreign:
- Non-profit
organizations;
- For-profit organizations;
- Private institutions of higher
education;
- Public or state institutions
of higher education;
- Public international
organizations;
- Applicants should have
functional experience in laying the foundation for transitional
justice-related activities.
- Applicants may form consortia
and submit a combined proposal. However, one organization should be
designated as the lead applicant with the other members as sub-award
partners.
- The Department of State is
committed to an anti-discrimination policy in all of its programs and
activities. The Department of State welcomes applications
irrespective of an applicants’ race, ethnicity, color, creed, national
origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. They encourage
applications from organizations working with underserved communities,
including women, people with disabilities, and youth.
- Applicants must have the
organizational capacity to implement program components in countries
proposed. Applicants must also have experience in conducting risk
assessments and monitoring and evaluating programs and sub-recipients in
order to document and assess the short- and long-term outcomes of proposed
projects.
- Applicants will be required to
include partnerships with local individuals and/or organizations,
including those displaced, as part of their project design. Extensive
partnerships with international accountability mechanisms, national law
enforcement agencies, documentation organizations, and/or international or
professional legal associations, are useful to ensure that all program
activities can be implemented quickly.
Post Date - 21-Jun-2021