Title: Title: Pursuing Justice for Mass Atrocities: A Handbook for Victim Groups
Author: Sarah McIntosh
Place of publication: USA
Publisher: Holocaust Memorial Museu
Release date: 2021

The Handbook is an educational guide for victim groups on pursuing justice for genocide and related crimes against humanity. The Handbook presents a fresh perspective on victim-led justice efforts. It argues that by coming together as a group or coalition, victims’ demands for justice are harder for decision-makers to ignore. To learn more about how to use the handbook, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions. The FAQ page also includes an instructional video.
The Handbook is designed to be read cover-to-cover but readers may want to focus on specific chapters based on their needs and interests:
The Introduction provides an overview of the topics covered in the Handbook, identifies the intended audiences, and defines key terms used throughout; it also discusses survivor group efforts to advance transitional justice after the Holocaust
Chapter 1: Pursuing and using transitional justice measures discusses how transitional justice works and the role that victim groups can play in advancing different transitional justice measures
Chapter 2: Using law to access justice and accountability for mass atrocities provides an overview of different legal options and discusses what victim groups can do to initiate and participate in cases
Chapter 3: Building sustainable victim-centered coalitions discusses the benefits and challenges of forming a victim-centered coalition and offers some tips for working as a victim-centered coalition for justice
Chapter 4: Gathering and sharing information offers advice on the kinds information that victim groups can gather to help advance justice efforts for genocide and related crimes against humanity other than evidence about specific crimes
Chapter 5: Advocating for justice with political and diplomatic actors canvases topics from developing clear and strategic policy requests that are tailored to specific decision-makers to maintaining pressure on decision-makers to advance justice over the long-term
Chapter 6: Advocating publicly for justice through strategic communications discusses how victim groups can develop messages about the need for justice for public audience and how they can reach and influence the intended audience
Chapter 7: Anticipating and mitigating the risks and challenges for pursuing justice discusses some of the common risks that victim groups may face and strategies for overcoming them
Note: Risks associated with gathering information are discussed separately in Chapter 4
Chapter 8: Securing funding and support for victim groups to lead justice projects aims to help victim groups to identify the kinds of support they need to advance their justice effort, to find donors and organizations that can provide this support, to develop proposals for obtaining funding or support, and to maintain relationships with donors.[1]