African countries have experimented with and implemented transitional justice measures for several decades. This database provides case studies of transitional justice processes that have occurred across the continent. The case studies discuss truth commissions, justice and accountability measures, reparations programmes, institutional reforms and other elements of transitional justice, such as community-based and traditional justice mechanisms, as well as cross-cutting issues, such as gender and the role of international actors.

The 2019 African Union Transitional Justice Policy defines transitional justice as “the various (formal and traditional or non-formal) policy measures and institutional mechanisms that societies, through an inclusive consultative process, adopt in order to overcome past violations, divisions and inequalities and to create conditions for both security and democratic and socio-economic transformation.” This database, which is updated on an ongoing basis, reflects the diversity and contextuality of transitional justice processes that have been undertaken in Africa.