Deadline: 02-Aug-21
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
- 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.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=334232