Paradoxes and challenges of transitional justice at the ‘local’ level: historical enquiries in Northern Ireland

Abstract

‘Truth’ recovery has become part of a globalised ‘formula’ which transitional justice advocates claim is imperative to conflict transformation. Yet the value of ‘truth’ and efficacy of international ‘truth’ recovery templates has been negatively critiqued. Increasingly, ‘localised’ approaches to memory work are seeking to develop innovative and context-specific processes to grapple with these potentially divisive and challenging issues. Through ‘local/global’ perspectives and ‘bottom-up’ critiques, this article explores how transitional justice discourse has been mediated, strategically adapted and ‘localised’. Using a case study of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), a police-led ‘truth’-recovery process distinctive to Northern Ireland, it examines the paradoxes of transitional justice and the challenges it can generate for states and societies in transition. In order to do this, the article examines the purpose of the HET as envisaged by its architects, its effectiveness as a ‘truth’-recovery mechanism and the intense debates it has generated. The aim is to consider the controversial nature of dealing with the past and the inherent dilemmas and difficulties of memory work post-conflict. The complications of a police-led ‘truth’-recovery process in a divided society with a history of contested policing and the lessons for other societies in transition are discussed.