Addressing organised crime through a transitional justice framework
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PROJECT TEAM
Huma Haider
Independent Researcher
Contact: huma@humahaider.com
Huma Haider is an independent research consultant and international lawyer, with over 17 years of experience producing policy relevant research and guidance for international development advisors. She is a former Research Fellow at the GSDRC, International Development Department, University of Birmingham. Her research areas centre on transitional justice in divided societies, coexistence, reconciliation, conflict sensitivity, international humanitarian law, and the role of diaspora and refugee communities in peacebuilding. Her geographic area of focus is the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also worked as a lawyer in the Prosecutor’s Office of the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Large-scale violence linked to organised crime is increasingly challenging conventional distinctions between criminality, conflict and atrocity. In many contexts, organised crime groups, criminal networks and their state or non-state collaborators perpetrate violence that extends beyond ordinary criminal activity and may amount to serious human rights violations or even atrocity crimes. Yet responses to such violence remain largely rooted in law-enforcement and security approaches, often overlooking the wider needs of victims and affected communities.
This project explores how transitional justice can contribute to addressing organised crime in situations where criminal violence intersects with human rights abuses and mass victimisation. Drawing on experiences where transitional justice mechanisms have addressed illicit economies and organised crime, including the International Criminal Court, a special court in Colombia, a hybrid institution in Guatemala, truth commissions, and reparations, the research examines where and how transitional justice tools and counter-organised crime initiatives can complement one another.
The research argues that victim-centred approaches such as truth-seeking, acknowledgement, reparations and institutional reform can help address harms that are often left unresolved by conventional law-enforcement responses alone. It also considers practical challenges, including questions of mandate, political will and institutional coordination.
By identifying linkages between organised crime, atrocity crimes and transitional justice, the project seeks to provide policymakers and practitioners with new ways of thinking about accountability, justice and effective responses to complex and overlapping forms of violence.
PUBLICATIONS
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Haider, H. (2026). When organised crime becomes an atrocity crime: Adopting a transitional justice framework. SOC ACE Research Paper No. 43. University of Birmingham.
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Haider, H. (2026). When organised crime becomes an atrocity crime: Adopting a transitional justice framework. SOC ACE Briefing Note No. 53. University of Birmingham
Media and Events
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International Institute of Humanitarian Law. (2025). Panel at the 48th Sanremo Round Table on Current Issues of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)[Conference session].
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