As you can see from the cartoon images on the right, we have selected the images of a toolbox and tools to capture some of the elements of transitional justice. Ideally, transitional justice would be comprehensive and integrated. That means that it would not just be courts or truth commissions or educational reforms alone. Instead these changes would be developed in relationship to and in conversation with each other. Too often, however, this does not happen. Usually, the transitional justice process is led by political reforms and legal transformations. Educational and economic reforms follow, if they come at all.

By using tools, we are inviting you to think about options and action. Individuals, organizations and governments can make choices regarding what methods make the most sense for themselves and their community. These choices are informed by immediate interests such as safety and security (why a political change might come first) as well as long term interests such as developing the historical record to prevent denial and to promote reconciliation in the next generation (why a truth commission might be selected and an educational reform developed). The tools we have chosen are not the only tools at your disposal. You might come up with what you consider to be more effective tools and/or combinations of tools. If you do, share these ideas with us. We are all learning together, as is the rest of the world, about how to not only think about repairing individuals and societies after mass violence, but how to actually do it.

Journalist, activist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power sometimes refers to tools in the "foreign policy" toolbox. Her use of this image reminds her audiences that there is a spectrum of choices, not just military intervention or nothing. We often get stuck, believing in "either/or" choices. Tools remind us that we have options. Tools also do not work on their own-they require human beings to choose the appropriate one and try it out.

Power is most often talking about a stage of prevention when massive human rights violations are already taking place. This module looks at the stages or prevention prior to and following that stage. Dr. James Smith of the Aegis Trust is a practicing doctor. He often uses a medical model to talk about prevention. In his model, the first stage would include check-ups, eating right, exercise. All of the things you do to stay healthy. The corollary for policy might be developing a strong economy and implementing human rights frameworks. The second stage of prevention is the stage where the patient has a heart attack and the doctor must choose how to respond in an emergency situation. This is the stage Power refers to where the options might be economic sanctions, military intervention, humanitarian aid, and the rescue of children. The third stage of prevention is the aftercare. As Smith says, doctors do not leave patients on the table after surgery and walk away. This stage is perhaps the most critical because it is about repairing what happened, addressing the trauma, and then helping the patient to heal so that it does not happen again. This module explores attempts by individuals, organizations and countries to do just this. They are actively choosing methods-tools-to address what happened in their country, and they are simultaneously working toward prevention because they know that the injury they experienced has made them vulnerable.