Three years after launching its successful Transitional Justice Fellowship Program in Cape Town, South Africa, the ICTJ inaugurated a new program based in Santiago, Chile, in partnership with the University of Chile Law School’s Center for Human Rights. This intensive course, which involves approximately 25 participants, comprises both on-site and distance learning. The course is taught primarily by Professor José Zalaquett and includes visiting professors Sofia Macher (Peru) and Elizabeth Lira (Chile), as well as ICTJ staff Louis Bickford, Pablo de Greiff, Eduardo Gonzalez, and Juan Méndez.

In addition, the ICTJ and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law have also established an ad hoc Transitional Justice Fellowship Program at the University of Ottawa in Canada. The program is directed by the ICTJ's Mark Freeman, and will welcome its first four fellows in January 2005.

The Cape Town program, which involves four months of intensive study, continues to attract outstanding candidates. Managed by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), the program is taught by senior staff from the IJR and the ICTJ, as well as visiting instructors, such as Professors Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Andre du Toit.

The candidates for these fellowship programs—lawyers, journalists, teachers, human rights professionals, social workers, or those in similar professions who are committed to ensuring that their society deals with the past in a just and responsible manner—are chosen through a rigorous and competitive process that involves collaboration with ICTJ partner organizations.