Who we are

ARC for Justice is an interdisciplinary consortium of survivor leaders and their allies working to transform how societies respond to atrocities. Our members bring expertise across survivor movements, trauma and healing, law and policy, research and data, technology, organizational development, and advocacy. We came together because no single discipline, and no single organization, can address the full reality survivors face. 

Our team
Our team

“I would be talking about the details of how to use forensic science and multidisciplinary approaches to exhumate a mass grave, and then I say a small story about torture, and afterwards some people come to me to say ‘thanks for sharing your experience with us’. Ok, how about my expertise? ‘I’m sorry it was difficult to talk about this…’ Ok, yeah, but I am more than just a story, or a victim, you know.”

—Ahmad Helmi, ARC member and co-founder of INOVAS, as quoted by Julie Bernath

Supported by the Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL (UNITAD) Iraqi authorities conclude the excavation of multiple mass grave sites. UN Photo/UNITAD.

Our history

Before ARC existed, many of us were confronting versions of the same problem from different directions. Some were building and supporting survivor movements. Others were conducting research in conflict-affected communities, providing trauma care, advising justice sector actors, developing technology, or shaping policy. Again and again, we saw systems fail to recognize survivors as more than “beneficiaries” or mere bystanders. We also saw how much was lost when our respective fields worked in silos.

In 2022, several ARC members began collaborating around survivor consultation, justice, and trauma healing in Ukraine. Those relationships grew around a shared question: what would atrocity response look like if survivor leadership, healing, justice, research, and policy were designed together rather than separately?

In 2024, ARC for Justice was formed to turn that collaboration into a sustained platform for survivor leadership and systems change. Our role is to provide infrastructure, expertise, relationships, research, and support that help survivor leaders exercise their own agency and influence.

  • Data and tech.

    ARC includes leading data scientists at the cutting edge of community consultation, applied research, and tech for the common good.

  • Trauma and healing.

    ARC includes experts at the vanguard of the impacts of complex trauma on individuals, communities, and societies, and what it takes to heal.

  • Law and policy.

    ARC includes former policy-makers and legal experts who think outside the box on pathways to justice while navigating existing systems.

  • Survivor movements.

    ARC brings together survivor leaders with lived and scholarly expertise, and allies with experience working alongside survivor movements.

  • Transitional justice.

    ARC members have supported memorials, searched for the missing, and supported prosecutions, and have expertise in transitional justice.

  • Teaching and training.

    ARC members have conducted trainings for civil society and survivor groups and have taught in higher ed.

Our Stewardship Team

Ram was a student activist in 2001 in Nepal during the armed conflict when his father was forcibly disappeared by the state. Ram was also tortured, arrested for short periods of time, and displaced from his rural village. Ram launched a network of families of the disappeared, the Committee for Social Justice, among other NGOs and community groups, before going on to do advocacy at the international level. He is a founding member of INOVAS.

Ram Bhandari | INOVAS

VICTIMS MOVEMENTS

Anna is Executive Director of ARC. She is an international justice lawyer, atrocity prevention and response expert, and former senior US policymaker at the White House and State Department, with two decades of experience across government, academia, civil society, and the private sector. A strategic thinker and entrepreneur who has spearheaded large scale interdisciplinary initiatives in fragile settings, she is passionate about designing innovative, evidence-based solutions to serve communities who most need them.

Anna Cave | Kobo and Harvard

LAW, POLICY, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Liyam Eloul | CVT

TRAUMA CLINICIAN

Liyam brings nearly two decades of experience bridging clinical practice, humanitarian response, and peacebuilding. Drawing on her background in conflict mediation and trauma-informed mental health, she can support organizations and their leaders to thrive under pressure in complex settings.

Ahmad Helmi| INOVAS

Ahmad is a nonviolent Syrian activist, speaker, and storytelling coach, who endured three years of imprisonment and torture in Syria for his peaceful activism. Following his release, he founded the Ta’afi Initiative, which is a victims’ led initiative that aims to support survivors of detention and victims of torture in Syria. He also has a background in forensic anthropology and was instrumental in establishing the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria at the UN in 2023. He is a founding member of INOVAS.

CAMPAIGNING AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Sarah McIntosh| CNS

SURVIVOR-LED JUSTICE AND TRANSFORMATION

Sarah is Deputy Director of ARC. She is an international human rights lawyer who focuses on survivor-centered approaches to justice, healing, and atrocity prevention around the world. For a decade, she has worked alongside survivor coalitions and civil society, and has conducted survivor-focused research, writing, training, teaching, and strategic advising. She is the author of a book written specifically for victim groups about strategies they can adopt to advance justice for atrocities.

Sarah Novak | CVT

DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS

Sarah’s work focuses on building and maintaining partnerships with funders, government agencies and programmatic partners. She has more than 10 years of experience in international development in the areas of grant writing, evaluation, and designing community-based programming.

Phuong Pham| Harvard

Phuong is a data scientist, field researcher, and tech innovator who brings over two decades of experience in designing and implementing research tools to better understand how affected communities define justice and other issues.

SURVIVOR-CENTERED CONSULTATION

Celeste has over 20 years of experience in international human rights, including designing capacity-building initiatives that integrate mental health, justice, and survivor leadership. Throughout her time with CVT and beyond, Celeste has created and led innovative initiatives that have touched tens of thousands of survivors, families, and communities.

Celeste Robinson | CVT

JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Patrick Vinck| Harvard

ETHICAL DATA AND TECH

Patrick’s expertise combines big data, ethical tech, and community research to build evidence-based approaches to peacebuilding, social cohesion, and justice after atrocities.

Luciana Vosniak | Harvard

Luciana specializes in human rights, international justice, and humanitarian affairs. Her current work focuses on managing global research initiatives that support evidence-based policymaking.

INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLICY

Founding partners

  • The International Network of Victims & Survivors of Serious Human Rights Abuses (INOVAS) represents 20 national survivor organizations and hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide. INOVAS is a co-equal decision-maker which shapes and carries out ARC’s shared strategy; INOVAS and its members are also beneficiaries of the leadership and accompaniment support ARC offers.

  • Kobo is a nonprofit technology organization dedicated to equipping individuals, communities, and organizations with the technology, training, insights, and services they need to turn field data into real-world change.

  • The Center for Victims of Torture advances healing for survivors through healing, justice, advocacy, and research initiatives.

  • The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has pioneered data science innovations related to victim-centered justice and large scale consultations with communities affected by conflict and atrocities.

Contributing partners

The Mukwege Foundation founded by Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Denis Mukwege, supports survivors to speak out and be heard.

The Global Network of Victims and Survivors to End Wartime Sexual Violence (SEMA) gathers victims and survivors of wartime sexual violence from 26 countries, acting in solidarity, mobilizing collectively, and advocating for justice and change.

The Center on National Security at Georgetown Law Center, is dedicated to finding and implementing innovative, cross-sectoral solutions to tough national security problems, including justice for atrocities and minimizing harm in conflict.