Impunity Watch

Impunity Watch (IW) is a Netherlands-based international non-profit group founded in 2008 to help societies emerging from a violent past shape how truth, criminal justice, reparations and non-recurrence are sought, with the overall goal of promoting a culture of human rights, participatory democracy and the rule of law. Its work began in 2005 within Dutch development organisation Solidaridad and is poised to expand from Latin America and Europe to Africa and Asia.

We believe more grassroots knowledge, contacts and insight can help create policies that better respond to societies’ range of needs, concerns and grievances, and tackle impunity at its roots. So, the IW focus is to promote the strong input of civil society into the design, implementation and oversight of “transitional justice” mechanisms. To achieve this, we work in partnership with local organisations to research the root causes and nature of impunity for large-scale crime and human rights abuses, facilitate society-wide consultations on the policy implications of the research findings, advocate for the policy recommendations that emerge and monitor states’ compliance with their legal obligations towards victims.