Law JournalFeeds

¹Transitional justice strategies are frequently considered to be necessary components of postconflict reconciliation processes, particularly in societies that have been deeply divided by histories of intrastate violence between antagonistic identity groups. Drawing on recent social psychological research into the dynamics of intergroup reconciliation, this article contends that the transitional justice strategies most successful in promoting postconflict reconciliation are those that take account of the collectivized nature of mass violence in divided societies and that seek to foster instrumental, socioemotional and distributive forms of ‘social learning’ among former enemies. This framework is used to assess the unique local programme of ‘decentralized’ transitional justice that emerged in Northern Ireland following the Belfast Agreement of 1998 and its contribution to ongoing processes of reconciliation between local nationalist and unionist communities. The article concludes by considering what insights this analysis of Northern Ireland’s decentralized local process might have for the broader field of transitional justice and for the design of future justice interventions in deeply divided [...]

This article discusses the advancement and constraints of gender justice for women victims of armed conflict and forced displacement in Colombia, with special reference to land restitution. Women constitute the overwhelming majority of rights claimants under the 2005 Justice and Peace Law and their rights have been supported by rulings of the Constitutional Court. Government response, however, has been insufficient. Women’s claims are part of a broader political debate on the limits of victimhood and the costs of reparation, in which the need for restitution of land is reluctantly acknowledged. Displaced women have been more vulnerable to violent land seizures and they face greater security risks than men when attempting to reclaim their land. In this context, what approaches can Colombia use in designing a gender-sensitive land restitution program that is transformative of gender relations? The authors argue that special protection measures, land deeds for women and better access to justice must be included in transitional justice processes as a means of fostering gender-equitable [...]

Increasing emphasis is being given to truth commissions in efforts to achieve transitional justice goals, including the establishment of a collective memory, democracy and reconciliation. Truth commissions alone cannot guarantee that these goals will be met, however. The authors of this article believe that the media also has a definitive impact on the process. Indeed, how the media portrays transitional justice mechanisms, such as truth commissions and trials, often determines how they are received in a postconflict society. Failure to take into account the importance of public opinion during transitional justice processes carries the risk of societal divisions being reinforced, which appears to have been the case in Peru. The authors argue that, for this reason, attention should be paid to establishing a constructive societal dialogue, which is often most possible through attention to the reform and support of the local media. Although a national dialogue may not always result in an agreed-upon collective memory, it is arguably a prerequisite. The media plays an important role in this endeavor and may ultimately encourage or hinder reconciliation and the recurrence of [...]

¹The international community accepts that peace, justice and development are indivisible properties of human freedom and thus wants a more coordinated approach to postconflict recovery. Today, transitions to democracy are typically launched through constitutional negotiations and anchored in efforts to fix broken state institutions or create new ones. These are settled strategies for addressing the social and economic causes of conflict in troubled societies. Transitional justice (TJ) has been slow to appreciate or capitalize on the inherent potential of these political processes to further justice and peace. By not taking a wider view of the opportunities for change that are presented by the transitional moment, TJ limits its capacity to construct the institutions that must work if a return to conflict is to be prevented. With this in mind, prominent practitioners have begun to look at how to extend TJ’s brief to include a wider set of issues linked to social justice. They are also looking for concepts and tools to bridge the divide between the field and related disciplines. This article presents South Africa’s transition as a case study of this wider view and is written from the perspective of a practitioner who was involved in building the post-apartheid democratic state. It aims to contribute to the current debate about TJ’s stake in postconflict [...]

1Truth seeking in postwar Guatemala is a political battleground in which perpetrators intent on guarding against accountability confront victims’ associations equally intent on exposing abuses endured during the country’s 36-year armed conflict. Having stage-managed the peace negotiations that established the restrictive parameters of Guatemala’s Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), army officers and guerilla leaders ceded control of truth seeking to Commission staff and their civil society partners, even as the latter mobilized to push the CEH to its investigative limits. The CEH final report’s finding that the army had committed genocide galvanized both sides. Victims’ associations insist on more truth alongside justice and reparations, while army perpetrators reject incriminating Commission findings. The Guatemalan case reveals how truth initiatives are at once politicized and polarizing and how politics interfere with a truth commission’s effort to produce a consensus history, end violence or afford reconciliation. While it confirms that confronting the past risks undermining the labor of transition architects, it also suggests that these may be necessary evils that could eventually contribute to transforming and strengthening [...]

¹This article argues that truth commissions as a transitional justice mechanism have fallen short of what is achievable within the context of their own aspirations, particularly with respect to cases involving ethnicity-based violence. This failure is primarily due to the structural application of the narrative process, where (1) the commissions shy away from exploring the motivations behind violent actions; (2) victims’ and perpetrators’ voices are restrained to fit into collective accounts; and (3) victims’ voices are elevated over perpetrators’ in the memory-making aspect of the commissions’ work. This article asserts that truth commissions must focus on personal narratives over grand narratives, de-essentialize the ‘victim’ and the ‘perpetrator’ and place victims’ and perpetrators’ narratives on equal footing with respect to the collective memory project. Governments must allow more time and resources for truth commissions to delve into the nuances of conflict in order to create a more feasible platform for realistic reconciliation and the possibility of enduring [...]