The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) was launched in the year 2000, in the wake of South Africa´s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The aim was to ensure that lessons learnt from South Africa´s transition from apartheid to democracy were taken into account as the nation moved ahead.

After 25 years of advancing reconciliation and transitional justice in South Africa and across the continent, the IJR is reimagining its role and relevance in a world that has been fundamentally reshaped by crisis and complexity. Since the development of its previous strategy in 2020, the global landscape has been in flux.

The new IJR Organisational Strategy: 2026–2030 represents both a renewal and a redirection – one grounded in the IJR’s legacy of convening, listening, providing implementation support and bridging divides, while also being responsive to the imperatives of the present and the future. The strategy is informed by a rigorous process that includes horizon scanning, complex systems analysis (systems thinking), scenario planning and engagement with stakeholders across sectors. It also draws on the internal expertise and lived experiences of the IJR team and its stakeholders. At its heart lies a bold decision: to embrace reparative justice as the organisation’s central pillar, not as a technical theme but as a unifying vision that reframes the IJR’s identity, deepens its relevance, and responds to the urgent calls for a renaissance, healing, repair and the transformation of our societies.