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Capacity strengthening

Lasting accountability requires local ownership. We share our expertise with civil society groups and legal practitioners so they can document crimes and navigate international justice systems themselves.

Justice for international crimes is most durable when it is driven by those closest to the crimes themselves. In many situations, political realities mean that accountability cannot be achieved in the country where crimes were committed — and international actors like Civitas Maxima play a necessary role in pursuing justice abroad. But we have always believed that the people best placed to understand and document these crimes are those who come from the communities affected by them.

That is why capacity strengthening sits at the heart of our work. Since 2012, we have worked in sustained partnership with national organisations, sharing our legal expertise and investigative methodology so that local lawyers, investigators and civil society groups can document atrocities, engage with international justice systems, and build cases that hold up in court.

We also believe that the pursuit of justice must ultimately be owned by victims, survivors, and civil society in the countries where the crimes occurred. Our role is to equip and support — not to substitute. When accountability is achieved abroad, our partners are positioned to build on that progress and push for justice at home too.

The Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP)

Since 2012, CM and the GJRP in Monrovia have maintained a sustained, full-scale partnership focused on investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Liberia’s civil wars, in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

This long-term cooperation has contributed directly to several landmark convictions outside Liberia, demonstrating the effective use of universal jurisdiction:

  • 2017: Guilty verdict in Philadelphia against Mohammed Jabbateh (“Jungle Jabbah”) for immigration fraud related to his role in the first Liberian civil war. Sentenced to 30 years, upheld on appeal in 2020.
  • 2018: Guilty verdict in Philadelphia against Thomas Woewiyu for immigration fraud related to the first civil war. He died from COVID-19 in 2020 before sentencing.
  • 2021: Conviction in Bellinzona, Switzerland, of Alieu Kosiah for war crimes. A 20-year sentence was upheld in 2023, with additional charges of crimes against humanity confirmed. The case is pending before the Swiss Supreme Court.
  • 2022: Conviction in Paris of Kunti Kamara for torture and crimes against humanity. Upheld on appeal in 2024 with a 30-year sentence.
  • 2025: Guilty plea in Philadelphia by Laye Sekou Camara (“K-1”) for immigration fraud related to the second civil war. Sentenced to 57 months.

These trials have also kept the debate alive in Liberia on domestic prosecution of war crimes. In 2024 and 2025, the Liberian President took concrete steps toward establishing a Special War Crimes Court.

Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL)

Since 2012, Civitas Maxima and the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), based in Freetown, have collaborated to promote accountability for the involvement of Western actors in the trade in “blood diamonds” during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991–2002). For several years, both organisations documented the experiences of individuals exploited by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the diamond pits of Kono, in eastern Sierra Leone, where they were subjected to conditions of slavery as part of that trade. Civitas Maxima and CARL also collaborated directly with the lawyer Luc Walleyn. This long-term cooperation has contributed, directly or indirectly, to several landmark cases in Europe.

In 2015, Michel Desaedeleer, a dual US and Belgian national, was arrested for his alleged role as a businessman involved in the blood diamond trade with the RUF during the last period of the civil war (1998–2002). The proceedings, brought in Brussels, Belgium, charged him with war crimes and crimes against humanity. This marked the first time anyone had been arrested and indicted for involvement in the trade in blood diamonds, which was classified as a war crime (pillage) and a crime against humanity (forced labour). Mr Desaedeleer died in custody in Brussels in 2016 while awaiting trial, and the case is now closed.

In September 2021, with the support of Civitas Maxima and CARL, an individual who suffered and witnessed crimes in Kono filed a criminal complaint against Manuel Terrén before the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid. The complainant is represented by the lawyers Juan Garcés and Hernán Garcés. Mr Terrén, a Spanish national, is alleged to have been a businessman involved in the blood diamond trade with the RUF during the same period (1998–2002). Arrested in 2024 on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, brought in Madrid, Spain, he has since been released, and the investigation remains ongoing in 2026.

Truth Hounds

Since 2022, Civitas Maxima and Truth Hounds (Kyiv, Ukraine) have collaborated on crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the aim of promoting accountability before courts outside Ukraine. This partnership followed a training session Civitas Maxima provided to Truth Hounds in Kyiv in 2021. In 2022, the collaboration led to a criminal complaint filed with the Swiss Federal Prosecutor concerning a crime committed by Russian forces against a Swiss citizen; an investigation was opened in 2023.