Voices

A woman holds a copy of 'Voices' in Abia, Aleptong district during the launch of a monument dedicated to the Abia massacre of 2004, on 12 December 2015.
A woman holds a copy of ‘Voices’ in Abia, Aleptong district during the launch of a monument dedicated to the Abia massacre of 2004, on 12 December 2015.

Voices is a publication of the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) which provides a space for victim-centred views on transitional justice. It aims to be a regular, open platform for victims and key stakeholders to dialogue on local and national transitional justice developments. Past issues have dealt with thematic areas such as amnesty, reparations, truth-telling, accountability and sexual- and gender-based violence. We welcome the submission of articles from conflict-affected community members, academics, civil society and government representatives on each issues’ given theme.

Writers should keep the following in mind the following as they prepare to contribute to the magazine.

JRP’s working definition of ‘transitional justice’

According to JRP’s working definition, transitional justice (TJ) is a response to widespread human rights abuses for situations of conflict transitioning to situations of peace. It aims to prevent such atrocities from happening again includes processes such as criminal prosecution, reparations, truth-telling and traditional justice.

Article requirements for Voices

  • Articles may be in the form of opinion, feature, interviews or news pieces, depending on the subject matter and the interests of the writer in identifying the most effective way of presenting their writing.
  • Articles are between 800-1200 words.
  • Voices uses UK spelling
  • Citations are important, but as Voices is not an academic publication please do not use footnotes to cite references.

Voices’ sections

Community Voices presents stories from the perspective of conflict-affected communities and individuals. These may be written by or about community or individual experiences, views, aspirations or challenges. Articles in this category are often classified as ‘Feature’ articles, but may utilise any style of writing.

Opinion articles express the writers’ opinions and critiques on a given issue. Writers are encouraged to be solution oriented and to provide recommendations where possible.

The Research Corner highlights on-going transitional justice research and provides a forum for sharing knowledge, feedback, lessons and upcoming research projects. Articles in this section may be in the form of summarised field notes and reflections, book reviews or proposed ideas for further or ongoing research.

News articles present information about recent developments in transitional justice. Writers should take into consideration the timeliness of the publication of the issue to which the writer intends to submit to.

Submission process

The editorial team at Voices uses a three-stage process for accepting, reviewing and editing submissions:

  1. Submission of story ideas to the editorial team based on the given theme an issue is based on. This may be in the form of a brief (150-200 word) title and abstract, or simply in the form of a proposed title.
  2. Submission of a first draft after a story idea is approved by the editorial team.
  3. Liaising with editors and submission of final draft.

Writers are encouraged to submit high quality photographs and a brief biography (60 words) along with their articles. Please ensure that photographs are separately attached in emails (i.e. not placed in a document, but rather attached as a separate file). Biographies may contain links to email addresses or websites of the writers.

Submissions must be made by email to the editorial team at voices@justiceandreconciliation.com.

Copyright and representations

By submitting content to Voices you represent and warrant that you hold exclusive rights to reproduce,
distribute, adapt, transmit, and publicly display that content and the authority to grant publication rights to JRP and Voices.

Other considerations

In submitting to Voices, please note the following:

  • Voices is unable to compensate writers for their submissions.
  • Prior to submission, articles cannot have been published elsewhere.
  • Voices is not obligated to publish a submission
  • Voices reserves the right to edit articles in order for them to comply with these guidelines
  • Articles published by Voices cannot be published by the author anywhere else within three months without the express consent of JRP/Voices.