TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview of the Collection

Historical Note

Scope and Content

Arrangement

Restrictions

Index Terms

Related Material

Administrative Information

Detailed Description

Series I: Administrative Records, 1995-2006

Series II: Research and Advocacy Files 1995-2006

Coalition for International Justice Records

Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

University of Connecticut Libraries

405 Babbidge Road, Unit 1205

Storrs, Connecticut 06269-1205

URL http://doddcenter.uconn.edu

Historical Note

The Coalition for International Justice (CIJ) was an international non-profit organization created in 1995, which provided professional legal technical assistance to the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. In addition, CIJ supported criminal and transactional justice initiatives for East Timor, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and Sudan. CIJ had offices in Washington, D.C., and The Hague in The Netherlands. CIJ originated and operated advocacy and public education campaigns, targeting decision-makers in Washington, media, and the public. CIJ, in conjunction with other non-governmental organizations around the world, helped direct and maximize the impact of individual and collective advocacy with regard to international and hybrid tribunals. In the field, CIJ provided practical assistance on legal, technical, and outreached matters to the tribunals and other justice initiatives.

CIJ mainly began its work with specific goals to help the new international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda to be as fair, responsible and effective as possible. CIJ has employed public education, advocacy, legal and technical assistance, courtroom monitoring and criticism to assist all the international tribunals in their struggle to meet the ambitious goals set for them.

In 1999, CIJ expanded its mandate to assist the emerging serious crimes investigations and prosecutions process in East Timor, efforts to establish a tribunal for Khmer Rouge crimes in Cambodia, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. At the same time they developed a sub-specialty in tracking the finances of persons accused of war crimes, issuing six detailed reports tracking money tied to the financial and political aggrandizement and protection of Slobodan Milosevic, Charles Taylor, Radovan Karadzic, the Khartoum elite, and Saddam Hussein, including the first, comprehensive expose of the U.N.’s Oil for Food program. CIJ also produced a how-to guide on conducting money-trail investigations.

In 2004, CIJ led a team of investigators from around the world in surveying over 1200 refugees from Darfur on the Chad border, which led to a historic first genocide determination by United States. Later, CIJ was one of the leaders of an effort to ensure that support for the referral of the Darfur case to the ICC be pushed in the context of a larger effort to gain support for international intervention aimed at protecting the besieged civilians in Darfur.

CIJ has played an important role in insuring that high level indicated persons are transferred to the tribunals. These efforts have occupied an immerse part of CIJ’s resources and time, and relative success of CIJ’s leadership on this issue is a tribute to building and supporting unusual alliances, closely following security and regional political issues and context. CIJ was not intended to become a permanent institution. After much discussion the Board of CIJ chose to end CIJ’s operations on March 31, 2006.

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Scope and Content

The collection includes reports, articles, organizational documents, press releases mainly from 2001 to 2006, correspondences, country background documents, questionnaires, published materials, and newspaper clippings.

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Arrangement

The collection is processed to the box level, and arranged by series.

Series I: Administrative Records (1995-2006).

Series II: Research and Advocacy Files (1995-2006).

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

The materials listed in this inventory are open to researchers as of January 1, 2011. A portion of the collection remains closed until January 1, 2013. Contact the curator for further information.

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must sign a confidentiality statement saying that they will not reveal email addresses included in the collection in order to access the materials. Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from both the University of Connecticut Libraries and the owner(s) of the copyright.

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Related Material

Archives and Special Collections has a substantial collection of materials pertaining to human rights issues. For detailed information on these collections please contact the curator or ask at the reference desk.

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

Document Types:

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Item description, #:#], Coalition for International Justice Records. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries.

Acquisition Information

The Coalition for International Justice Records were donated in 2006.

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Detailed Description