About
REPRIS was founded by Christalla Yakinthou to bring together three things that are critical to successful trust-building, truth-telling, or justice processes: a practical understanding of how change processes take shape; a knowledge of what has worked (and not worked!) around the world; and networks of research expertise to expand the boundaries of what is possible.
Christalla has been working within societies affected by injustice and historic violence for 20 years. In 2008, she received a PhD from the University of Western Australia for her thesis on institutional design for divided societies. Shortly afterwards, she moved to Cyprus to run the International Center for Transitional Justice’s (ICTJ) Cyprus programme. In 2011, she went to Beirut to coordinate the ICTJ’s Lebanon programming. In 2013, she accepted a position at the University of Birmingham, where she teaches and researches justice processes. Throughout her tenure, Christalla has continued to partner with NGOs in the field, and to advise governments and inter-governmental organisations on justice processes.
Most recently, she worked with the Offices of the UN Secretary-General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Syria teams in creating a special mechanism to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing people in Syria. Just prior to that, she led a two-year global initiative with Dutch NGO Impunity Watch to understand how survivors of trauma and historical injustice can use informal justice approaches—such as memory work, advocacy, and other tools—to ensure that justice efforts are truly aligned to their needs.
Christalla has recognised expertise across multiple areas:
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truth-seeking and truth-telling processes
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designing inclusive and co-created actions with affected communities
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adapting truth processes and the Arts to make space for healing and cultural restoration
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designing political institutions to create truly inclusive reforms
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forced disappearance and its legacies
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largescale participatory and grounded research initiatives
All of this is anchored in evidence-based innovation, building on global best practices.
She has worked alongside survivors and their families, politicians, activists, practitioners, civil society actors, and academics in Cyprus, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Guatemala, Tunisia and Syria.