Atrocity Response Coalition - Georgetown Law - Center on National Security

What We Do

Strengthening justice efforts to better respond to the needs of victims and communities impacted by atrocities, and help prevent violent conflict from recurring.

Civilians are now the battleground in a rising number of conflicts. But the geopolitical landscape is changing rapidly and radically, resulting in a vacuum of traditional justice measures for atrocities. Policymakers are increasingly looking for alternatives that are more localized, non-military, and cost-effective. To do so, we need new allies, innovative justice and peacebuilding strategies based on good data, and a pipeline to develop and support locally-grounded solutions that center on victims’ and survivors’ needs and priorities. The Atrocity Response Coalition (ARC) for Justice is a new global consortium that aims to transform how the world responds to atrocities by creating a victim-centered, evidence-based justice ecosystem. CNS is a founding member of ARC. Together, we represent best-in-class methodologies and networks to address the complex needs of survivors more effectively than any single organization. Our integrated team, with proven decision-making processes and shared values of local engagement, is uniquely positioned to drive change from the bottom up and top down. This partnership ensures that victims play a leading role in global justice processes.

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COURSE

Victim Centered-Justice

This seminar provides Georgetown law students the opportunity to consider the future of international justice and how decision-makers can set justice priorities so that victims caught amidst conflict and mass atrocities are not an afterthought, but are placed at the center.

INITIATIVE

The Innovation Council for International Justice (ICIJ)

The Innovation Council for International Justice (ICIJ) is an initiative that brings together experts from multiple disciplines and experiences across the world to analyze and strategize efforts to redress and respond to war crimes and other atrocities for victims and civilians in order to draw lessons for innovative future approaches to this challenge. The Council’s members include: Anna Cave, David Deng, Pablo de Greiff, Maxine Marcus, Sarah McIntosh, Phuong Pham, Mitt Regan, Lorraine Smith van Lin, Debbie Stothard, Patrick Vinck, and Alain Werner.

Publication

Victim Consultation Protocol

As part of CNS’s ongoing work to make victim-centered a reality rather than mere rhetoric, we are developing a Protocol that lays out principles and best practices for victim consultation in the design and implementation of holistic and transformative justice mechanisms for atrocities. The Protocol is based on dozens of interviews and extensive desk research and will be published in 2025.

Publication

Pursuing Justice for Mass Atrocities: A Handbook for Victim Groups

Conceived of by Executive Director Anna Cave and written by Senior Associate Sarah McIntosh, in 2021 the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Ferencz Initiative published the “Pursuing Justice for Mass Atrocities” handbook.” The Museum has translated it into 5 languages.

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