Transitional Justice Issues Research Articles

EU’S TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE POLICY, PROGRAMS AND INSTRUMENTS

The article examines the EU’s policy framework, programs and tools on support to transitional justice, and evaluates their impact and challenges. Transitional justice refers to the various ways of addressing the past human rights violations and serious crimes that occurred in contexts of political transition, such as post-conflict or post-authoritarian situations. The EU has adopted a comprehensive policy framework on support to transitional justice in 2015, which defines its principles, objectives, and modalities of engagement with partner countries and international and regional organisations on transitional justice issues. The EU has also used various instruments and actions to support transitional justice initiatives worldwide, such as providing financial assistance, engaging in political dialogue, offering technical expertise, and advocating for transitional justice norms and standards. The article also illustrates how the EU has supported transitional justice processes in different contexts and regions, such as dealing with the legacy of World War II, the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the war in the former Yugoslavia, and the Arab Spring. The article concludes by identifying some of the achievements and shortcomings of the EU’s involvement in transitional justice processes, such as contributing to accountability, recognition, trust, reconciliation, and non-recurrence; but also facing inconsistency, selectivity, conditionality, interference, cooptation, politicisation, fragmentation, duplication, etc. The article also suggests some ways to improve the EU’s policy framework, programs and tools on support to transitional justice, such as enhancing consistency, coherence, coordination, complementarity, and adaptability. The article also explores how the EU’s role and approaches in the field of transitional justice can affect its own identity and credibility as a global actor that promotes human rights, democracy, and the rule of law as core values of its external action.

English

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of transitional justice processes in Zimbabwe using a case of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC). The NPRC is the first Commission constitutionally mandated to implement the transitional justice processes in Zimbabwe. The research employed a qualitative research methodology and a case study design of the NPRC was used. Purposive sampling method was used to identify research participants. Data was collected using key informant interviews and documentary analysis. The research participants were drawn from the NPRC and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The findings of the study showed that the NPRC was far from meeting its mandate as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) and the NPRC Act. The key issues of transitional justice include reparations, prosecutions, and truth telling. The major challenges noted included financial, political, and lack of visibility at grassroots levels.   Key words: National peace and reconciliation commission, transitional justice, peace building, national healing, violence, operation restore order, citizens.

News Media Access for Civil Society Actors During Democratisation Processes: The Case of the Transitional Justice Campaign in Uruguay

ABSTRACT Theoretical scholarship on media democratisation neglects the role of representing groups in civil society, which in new democracies emerging from authoritarian regimes are frequently marginalised. These groups may also contest the form of democracy that has been implemented, and the way in which it deals with key transitional issues such as past human rights violations. This study focuses on how such groups are represented in one post-authoritarian society: Uruguay, which returned to democracy in 1985. Through examining media access for civil society groups in the newspaper coverage of two critical plebiscites on transitional justice issues (1989 and 2009), combined with interviews with journalists and civil society representatives, it argues that there are significant barriers to media access for civil society actors in the return to democracy, which relate both to changes during the democratisation process and domestic journalistic norms. This signals the need for both greater attention to the normative media role of representation during processes of democratisation and a more critical approach to media democratisation theory.

Breaking the Promise: Transitional Justice between Tactical Concession and Legacies of Authoritarian Regime in Indonesia

ABSTRACT For more than two decades after the authoritarian regime ended in Indonesia, transitional justice remains an unfinished agenda in the new democracy. In every government leadership, transitional justice issues re-emerged and later vanished or failed at implementation. Post-Suharto’s presidents have always succeeded in getting support by including the transitional justice agenda in their campaigns and the early days of their leadership. Yet, none resulted in truth and justice as promised. Transitional justice is used as a tactical concession and has proven successful in gaining support for political winnings; it provides the avenue for one to gain political legitimacy and support, as it promises a distance from the previous regime. However, adopting transitional justice measures did not in any way lead to a change in state behaviour, let alone to institutionalizing and internalizing justice and accountability. I argue in this article that authoritarian regime factors contributed to the impunity for perpetrators and the lack of truth and acknowledgement about past abuses in Indonesia today.

Religion, peace and justice: the effects of transitional justice on religious armed conflict resolution

ABSTRACT The rising of religious intrastate armed conflicts in recent years has a significant impact on the world order. Despite a growing literature on the relationship between religion and conflict, we know little about the conditions under which peace processes of religious conflicts may succeed. Studies show that addressing issues of transitional justice during conflicts may promote peace. This study examines the role of transitional justice in peace processes of religious conflicts. Our study uses quantitative analysis utilizing the Transitional Justice in Peace Processes (TJPP) Dataset, which contains innovative information on worldwide peace negotiations between 1989 and 2014. The TJPP dataset identifies six elements of transitional justice: truth commissions, reconciliation processes, reparations programs, restitution and rehabilitation of refugees, amnesties and prisoners' release. Findings demonstrate that peace processes of religious conflicts are more likely to use transitional justice elements, yet these peace efforts are less likely to reach a full peace agreement.

Transitional Justice in Southeast Asia

The issue of transitional justice has largely evaded the theoretical discussion on the democratization in Southeast Asian context despite the importance of coming to terms with the history of abuse and violence of the past authoritarian regimes. This article fills out this lacuna by incorporating the regional analysis of transitional justice process in several Southeast Asian countries to the larger and mainstream theories of transitional justices that are developed from other contexts. Using the case of transitional justice in Cambodia, East Timor, the Philippines, and Indonesia, this article found that the two most predominant accounts in the literature – the “balance of power” and the “justice cascade” theories – are inadequate to explain the conditions of emergence of the transitional justice and the kind of justice measure that the state would adopt. In turn, studies of empirical cases in these four Southeast Asian countries shed light on three plausible factors previously overlooked in the literatures: a) the distinctive, locally based, notion of justice; b) the frame and narrative of legitimacy of past violence; and c) the degree of complicity and entrenchment of current ruling elites in the past conflict.

Historians, Public History, and Transitional Justice: Baltic Experiences

Abstract How does public history correlate with issues of transitional justice and democratization? What are the roles and functions of professional historians during revolutionary moments and in the building of democratic culture and the pursuit of accountability and justice? On the basis of examples from three former Soviet republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during the past three decades, the essay reflects on these and other questions. It stresses the need for de-centralizing public engagement with the past and cautions against trends across the Central and Eastern European region to link processes of historical knowledge production with claims for justice and redress.

Ocean justice: SDG 14 and beyond

ABSTRACT The ocean is central to our lives, but many of our impacts on the ocean are highly unsustainable, and patterns of resource exploitation at sea are deeply inequitable. This article assesses whether the objectives encapsulated in the UN's Sustainable Development Goal for the ocean are well equipped to respond to these challenges. It will argue that the approach underpinned by the SDG 14 is largely compatible, unfortunately, with ‘business as usual’. SDG 14 is undoubtedly intended as a starting point rather than a final destination; but it is nevertheless important to be clear about how far we still need to travel on the road to oceanic justice. Most significantly, SDG 14 leaves several key challenges inadequately addressed or simply unaddressed. It fails to specify adequate principles for the fair sharing of benefits and burdens flowing from the ocean, including the burdens of tackling pressing environmental problems. Neither does it address the underlying causes of inequality in the ocean economy. It neglects to properly address, furthermore, the fragmented institutional context which significantly impedes effective action to advance the goals of justice and sustainability at sea. Finally, whereas SDG 14 correctly identifies a series of necessary reforms to the ocean economy, it fails to engage with important issues of transitional justice which will arise if these policies are implemented. Vital first step though it is, promoting a just and sustainable ocean will require us to set our sights considerably higher than the targets endorsed as part of SDG 14.

Ocean Justice: SDG 14 and Beyond

The ocean is central to our lives, but many of our impacts on the ocean are highly unsustainable, and patterns of resource exploitation at sea are deeply inequitable. This article assesses whether the objectives encapsulated in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal for the ocean are well equipped to respond to these challenges. It will argue that the approach underpinned by the SDG 14 is largely compatible, unfortunately, with ‘business as usual.’ SDG 14 is undoubtedly intended as a starting point rather than a final destination; but it is nevertheless important to be clear about how far we still need to travel on the road to oceanic justice. Most significantly, SDG 14 leaves several key challenges inadequately addressed or simply unaddressed. It fails to specify adequate principles for the fair sharing of benefits and burdens flowing from the ocean, including the burdens of tackling pressing environmental problems. Neither does it address the underlying causes of inequality in the ocean economy. It neglects to properly address, furthermore, the fragmented institutional context which significantly impedes effective action to advance the goals of justice and sustainability at sea. Finally, whereas SDG 14 correctly identifies a series of necessary reforms to the ocean economy, it fails to engage with important issues of transitional justice which will arise if these policies are implemented. Vital first step though it is, promoting a just and sustainable ocean will require us to set our sights considerably higher than the targets endorsed as part of SDG 14.

Mechanizmy indonezyjskiej zbrodni z 1965 r. w świetle najnowszych ustaleń

The article aims to analyse the mechanisms of Indonesian mass killings between 1965 and 1966 in light of the latest reports. The author refers to the most recent academic research, as well as the verdict announced in 2016 by the International People’s Tribunal in the Hague on the 1965 Crimes against Humanity in Indonesia (IPT 1965).Available sources confirm the thesis advanced by the researchers of the Indonesian political upheaval since the early 1980s that mass violence in the archipelago should be understood as a crime against humanity carried out by the military in an organised manner, with a declared intent to annihilate the main political rival, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).The author focuses on the issues of the organisation and morphology of violence, its ethnic dimension, as well as the problem of the international and internal negation of genocide in Indonesia, and the related issues of transitional justice.

Matthean Jesus and forgiveness in light of national healing, peace and reconciliation in Zimbabwe, 2008–2017

The history of Zimbabwe is characterised by a series of challenges, which, at different turning points, manifested themselves through violent conflicts, since its independence in 1980. Faced with the challenges associated with violence, socio-political, economic and religious conflicts, civil unrest and polarisation of the Zimbabwean society from 2008 to 2017, this article discusses the relevance and applicability of Jesus’ ethics with special focus on the Matthean Jesus and forgiveness in a bid to bring national healing, peace and reconciliation. The article stresses that the application of Matthean Jesus’ ethics is vital for the Zimbabwean society because it paves way for peace, healing and reconciliation. Among other factors, the Matthean Jesus’ ethics call for victims of political violence to unconditionally extend forgiveness to their offenders as demonstrated by the Matthean Jesus who forgave mankind’s sins through his sacrificial death on the cross. Over and above that, there should be an honest implementation of justice and truth telling by the Zimbabwean government through willingness and commitment to institute the rule of law and cab all forms of lawlessness. Moreover, it is imperative that there should be a formation of an independent truth, justice and reconciliation commission to deal with truth telling, acknowledgement of past wrongs, and restorative and transitional justice issues in Zimbabwe.

Routledge Handbook of Russian Foreign Policy by Tsygankov Andrei P. (review)

REVIEWS 591 of the ‘politics of the present’. However, thanks to his research for this book he ended up concluding that ideological factors played a larger role than he had initially assumed. Concerns about corruption and lack of transparency in Polish politics were genuinely held and played into the discussions about transitional justice, particularly on the right. On the other hand, politicians on the liberal-left were also guided by principle in their opposition to radical approaches towards truth revelation. For example, they viewed the court-based system established in 1997 as a fairer and more reliable method of proceeding. Overall, ‘protagonists on both sides were driven by a complex interplay of ideational and interest-based impulses and concerns’ (p. 187). Politicising the Communist Past also investigates a related debate about the significance of public support for more radical truth revelation policies. On the one hand, such support clearly existed and exists. On the other, Szczerbiak argues that issues of transitional justice were rarely salient on their own: they were significant to the public in conjuction with other concerns about transparency and honesty in Polish politics. This is a rigorously researched, clearly argued and solidly structured monograph which deserves to be in paperback as soon as possible. For the time being, readers of this review are advised to order it for their university library. UCL SSEES Anne White Tsygankov, Andrei P. (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Russian Foreign Policy. Routledge Handbooks. Routledge, Abingdon, and New York, 2018. xvi + 439 pp. Tables. Figures. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. £175.00. In view of the increasing importance of the study of contemporary Russian foreign policy and the growth in the academic literature seeking to describe and analyse it, the appearance of this volume is most welcome. Andrei P. Tsygankov’s Handbook comprises twenty-eight chapters by different authors, each critically examining the state of the field in the study of a particular facet of Russian foreign policy and including a bibliography. Tsygankov has divided the Handbook into four parts, each of which has an introduction written by him. The first part, which is perhaps the most weighty academically, concerns theoretical approaches to the field. The tools of foreign policy and some of the actors form the subject of the second part. The third and fourth parts examine policy towards particular states and regions and Russia’s interactions with international organizations, respectively. In the first part, Valentina Feklyunina provides an excellent chapter on constructivist approaches and identity issues. Viatcheslav Morozov discusses post-structuralist and post-colonialist interpretations. Realist studies are SEER, 97, 3, JULY 2019 592 examined by Elena Kropatcheva, who argues persuasively that neoclassical realism provides the most satisfactory of the approaches within the realist framework. John Berryman’s analysis of Russia’s geopolitical relationships from Kievan Rus´ to the present concludes that the treatment of Russia after the collapse of the USSR marked a missed opportunity to integrate it into international society. The role of Russian nationalism is considered by Luke March, who somewhat unusually but gracefully subjects some of his own work to criticism. Yuval Weber advocates the idea of Russia as a petrostate. In Part Two, Charles E. Ziegler writes what I think is the most useful chapter of the book. Entitled ‘Diplomacy’, it provides a description of the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, offering an overview of its policy. Other chapters deal with gas, the intelligence services, the military, cyberpower, and the media and public diplomacy. Nicolai N. Petro’s scholarly chapter on the Russian Orthodox Church argues that it has become the partner rather than an agent of the state. Among the highlights of Parts Three and Four, Natasha Kuhrt examines Russia’s ‘pivot to the East’. She finds the roots of this well before Western states imposed sanctions in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Kuhrt warns that in the future China may call on Russia for support in its maritime frontier disputes, where Moscow has so far managed to avoid entanglement. Ruth Deyermond’s careful analysis of Russia’s view of the Collective Security Treaty Organization shows how the body’s functions are evolving to include a capacity to resist...

Women’s Victimization in Transitional Justice and their Fight for Democracy and Human Rights: The Story of Taiwan

Women, even though they were main victims of Taiwan’s authoritarian regime, have been largely absent from the transitional justice mechanisms after Taiwan successfully transformed into a democracy. Following the discussion of women’s victimization in times of political oppression and the negative impacts of women’s absence in Taiwan’s current transitional justice process, this essay argues that the recent incorporation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women provides a gender-sensitive legal framework for female victims to overcome the social and institutional obstacles that they have faced in transitional justice issues.

Taiwan's Indigenous Languages Development Act: democratic politics, transitional justice and the quest for diplomatic recognition

ABSTRACTIn May 2017, Taiwan's legislature passed the Indigenous Languages Development Act (ILDA), which came into effect in June of that year. This paper traces the process and context that have led to the act's adoption, and provides an overview of its symbolic and substantive content. In doing so, this paper draws attention to the importance of contextual factors in the act's adoption. The ILDA had been in the works since the early 2000s, and it is only through a piecemeal approach to Indigenous legislation that it came into being. Its ultimate adoption was enabled by a conjuncture of social and political developments, most directly the election of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2016, after a campaign that emphasised issues of transitional justice, decolonisation and reconciliation. The momentum toward these trends has also been influenced by Taiwan's fragile political status. In fact, Taiwan's limited international recognition has incentivised the use of minority rights initiatives, together with the conduct of cultural diplomacy with the country's diplomatic and trade partners sharing Austronesian heritage, as sovereignty-building and soft power projection tools.

Human Rights Violations and Transitional Justice in Nigeria's Niger Delta during Civilian Rule: A Focus on the Fourth Republic

Human rights violations and violent conflicts in the Niger Delta of Nigeria have elicited interest from scholars and international agencies. Although studies provide significant insights into the conflicts in the Niger Delta, the issue of transitional justice has not been adequately considered. This article examines human rights violations and transitional justice in the Niger Delta. It begins with the conceptualization of human rights violations and transitional justice. It then offers a historical contextualization of oil production in Nigeria and an overview of the human rights situation in the Niger Delta. The key argument of the article is that efforts to ensure peace in the Niger Delta have not been associated with an effective transitional justice system. Since transitional justice is a requirement for sustainable peace after periods of gross human rights violations and violent conflict, efforts should be made to put transitional justice mechanisms in place to punish perpetrators of human rights violations and provide redress for victims.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Security Challenges Facing the Korean Peninsula During a Potential Unification Process

ABSTRACTThere is a lacuna in the literature analyzing the mid-term (6-24 months) period after a DPRK contingency that results in the Pyongyang regime’s relatively sudden and unmanaged fall. This article helps fill that gap, particularly with respect to security issues that would challenge Korean unification efforts during such a period. Following an Introduction, Section I first makes the case for a DPRK contingency being the most plausible end to the Pyongyang regime. Assuming the scenarios from Section I, Section II addresses the question of what critical issues a unifying Korea will face over the mid-term, and how dealing with these challenges will condition the type of end-state that a unified Korea will embody. In particular we examine three challenges: (a) mid-term security provision related to potential weapons proliferation, cyber-security, organized criminality, and human security; (b) the foundations of institution-building through measures dealing with issues of transitional justice, disputed land title claims, and generating broad domestic stakeholder buy-in in a unifying Korea; (c) the disposition of Korea’s strategic alignment in a Northeast Asia that will have undergone a major alteration of the regional system. Section III concludes with policy recommendations concerning what efforts should be made now to prepare for the situations described in Sections I and II.

New Roles for Media in the Western Balkans

After almost 20 years of political instability and ongoing conflicts in the Western Balkans, the region is still haunted by the past, and there is an ongoing synergy of influence between media and the political sector. Media in this region have frequently been criticized for fueling conflicts, instigating ethnic hatred and taking political sides. This article suggests a new research agenda in the practice of transitional journalism in this part of Southeastern Europe. This research strand combines elements from troubled pasts, war reporting, peace journalism and issues of transitional justice. This article analyzes how journalists in the Western Balkans consider the roles of journalism in times of transitions in the region. Findings from the Worlds of Journalism (WJS) study reveal that journalists and editors in the Western Balkans perceive their roles to be broader than those in traditionally western societies. They subscribe to traditional journalism values but also argue that the media has a broad responsibility to contribute to enhance transitions of societies after longer periods of conflict. At the same time, journalists have little trust in the institutions of society entrusted with the task of leading the countries through many issues of transitional justice. The article draws on empirical material from the WJS survey in 2014 and 2015 in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia.

Post Conflict Peacebuilding in Kosovo. Milestones, Actors and People.

This article presents and analyses the postconflict peacebuilding actions in Kosovo. It aims to bring a picture of external and internal actors involved in such a process from the end of the conflict up to date. The article challenges peace process in Kosovo through the issues emerging in the Society due to the unsettled status enduring as of Security Council Resolution 1244. It is structured into three sections. The first section analyses the postconflict peacebuilding and statebuilding actions undertaken by external and internal actors right after the conflict. The second section deals with the issue of transitional justice as a key element on peacebuilding and how it was addressed. Whereas the third section analyses the current situation of the population with the issues inherited from the conflict and others emerged due to undefined actions of external and internal actors.

An Unfinished Justice: How International Community Traded Justice for the Stability in Kosovo

Although, there is a considerable literature which analyzes the UN Mission in Kosovo from different perspectives, limited attention has been given to the mission’s contribution in confronting with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo committed by the Milosevic regime against Kosovo Albanians during the 1998-1999. This article intends to provide a comprehensive analysis of international justice mechanisms – UNMIK and the ICTY – in dealing with the past injustices in Kosovo by identifying their flaws and shortcomings, as well as exploring factors that impacted their performance and effectiveness. By using the existing literature, international organizations’ reports, governmental documents, and media articles, the article argues that international community failed to deal with transitional justice issues in Kosovo – fighting impunity and delivering justice to victims as well as strengthening the rule of law and achieving reconciliation between the communities. In its endeavors to documenting the past crimes, international mechanisms relied mainly on retributive justice whilst ignoring restorative and reparation measures under justifications to preserving peace and stability in Kosovo. Regretfully, seventeen years after the war, justice in Kosovo remains an “unfinished business,” with a potential of negative implications to peace and reconciliation amongst the ethnic groups.

The Interrelationship and Interconnectness of Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in Uganda: Pursuing Justice, Truth, Guarantees of Non-Repetition, Reconciliation and Reparations for Past Crimes and Human Rights Violations

This article examines transitional justice issues within a rule of law context generally, and in Uganda. The article discusses what violations occurred in Uganda, and what the interrelationship, and interconnectedness, of transitional justice is to the rule of law in the country. The article argues that while prosecutions are not favoured in Uganda, in any case they will be difficult to carry out because of the extensive amnesties already granted, and because of the political resistance and lack of political will to carry out prosecutions, especially against those employed by the state or in the Ugandan political arena. The article further argues that the right to the truth is now a norm of international law and why victims have the right to know the truth and why a truth mechanism(s) should be established. It is argued that such a process is necessary to learn about what occurred, to provide information to victims and their families, and to recommend mechanisms to try and avoid human rights abuses in the future. The article further argues that promoting reconciliation and providing reparations are critical for the country. The necessity of a reconciliation process is examined, including the use of traditional reconciliation means. Also discussed is the establishment and functioning of a reparations process. The type of reparations institution that ought to be created is examined, as are issues such as the period of reflection to be covered by the process, issues concerning outreach, access and the types and form that reparations should take.