ICMGLT is pleased to share the first Transitional Justice in the USA Trends Report, based on the mapping project conducted by the Center for International Law & Policy at New England Law | Boston (TJ-in-the-USA-Trends-Report-2026.pdf). Drawing on data from almost 100 initiatives, the report offers a comprehensive analysis of government-sponsored initiatives, at both local and federal levels, established to address historical and ongoing racial harms across the United States.

The project aims to understand these U.S. efforts within the broader global field of transitional justice, showing how the U.S. experience might reflect international practices—such as truth-seeking, reparations, institutional reform, and public accountability—while diverging in unique ways due to the country’s federal structure, racialized history, and decentralized political landscape. The result is a uniquely hybrid approach that blends international transitional justice principles with domestic civil-rights traditions.

What sets the U.S. apart is the absence of a national transition or federal directive, leaving state and local governments to confront centuries-old harms that continue into the present. As a result, the report shares how these initiatives blend global transitional justice tools within a stable democratic-constitutional order. In particular, the report provides a meta-analysis of national trends with a focus on themes that include:

Mandate and mechanism types — Breakdown of truth-seeking, reparations, institutional reform, memorialization, and hybrid models.

Public-facing activities — Hearings, reports, community dialogues, educational programs, and other community-involved projects.

Reparations-related actions — Financial, land-based, symbolic, and policy-based reparative measures.

Stalled or discontinued initiatives — Documentation of political, legal, and administrative barriers.

Case studies — Deep-dive examples illustrating variation in design, implementation, and outcomes.

The project continues to track transitional justice initiatives in the U.S. and aims to publish periodic trends reports.

For more information about the project, please visit the Transitional Justice in the USA Project page:
https://www.nesl.edu/practical-experiences/center-for-international-law-policy/transitional-justice-in-the-usa-project

To access the full report, please view the TJ in the USA Trends Report 2026 here:
https://www.nesl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/TJ-in-the-USA-Trends-Report-2026.pdf