Transitional Justice Initiatives Research Articles

Advancing Local US Transitional Justice Initiatives: A University Partnership Alongside Descendant Communities

ABSTRACT This article suggests that the ongoing denial by the USA federal government of historical human rights infractions against African Americans and people of African descent led to a proliferation of local transitional justice efforts. Drawing from a university-driven transitional justice project, this article offers an analysis of local initiatives and highlights one of its six transitional justice collaborations. The university project sought to decolonize its structure and approach, drawing on methods of cultural humility, desire-based research and deep listening. This article responds to the success and challenges of decolonizing a transitional justice project within academia. Findings suggested that local initiatives face obstacles due to enduring legacies of harms and silenced histories, necessitating communities to substantiate their claims. Capacity issues and funding are challenged due to centuries of disinvestment. The article offers lessons learned for potential ally organizations who seek to advance transitional justice where government-sponsored redress continues to be denied.

Contextualising the absence of standardised approaches to transitional justice in the Philippines

Abstract The professionalisation, institutionalisation and standardisation of transitional justice has often been critiqued for pushing more informal, vernacular or experimental approaches off the radar. While this concern is legitimate and needs to be addressed, this article explores the continued relevance of standardised approaches, and of a shared language of transitional justice more specifically. I develop this argument against the background of recent events in the Philippines where, in May 2022, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator, won the presidential elections. In this article I show that there has been a multiplicity of context-sensitive, vernacular and experimental transitional justice initiatives to deal with intersecting and multilayered legacies of violence, but that what has been missing is an overarching framework as expressed through the discourse of transitional justice, and the potential to forge collaborations and coalitions on the basis thereof. The case of the Philippines hints at the potential of a more ecological understanding of transitional justice in which justice actors involved in standardised and vernacular, formal and informal, state and non-state, top-down and bottom-up approaches recognise each other and certain shared objectives through the shared language and normativity of transitional justice.

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. 

Understanding the Unforeseen Consequences of an Incomplete Transitional Justice Ecology in the Philippines

The Philippines is not typically the focus of transitional justice (TJ) scholarship. Yet, it has had to deal with violent legacies pertaining to each generation of TJ and has installed several TJ initiatives in response to this. This has given rise to a densely populated TJ landscape, spanning different periods and regions and including both formal and informal initiatives within various TJ pillars. In spite of this plethora of initiatives, the Philippines can hardly be called a ‘successful’ case of dealing with violent legacies – with the recent election of Bongbong Marcos as the most striking example thereof. In this article I argue that this can be understood in light of the absence of a genuine TJ ecology: there has not been an encompassing approach in which various kinds of initiatives interact with each other based on intersecting normative objectives. I argue that the case of the Philippines holds broader lessons regarding the importance of a more ecological understanding of TJ.

A contextual analysis of the evolution of transitional justice: the story of Taiwan

ABSTRACT Taiwan confronted the challenge of transitional justice when it underwent democratic transitions in the late 1980s. This article examines Taiwan’s undertaking of transitional justice, the impacts of contextual dynamics on such undertaking, and the extent to which civic engagement and the incorporation of international human rights norms have facilitated transitional justice initiatives. The article argues that Taiwan’s negotiation-based transition and authoritarian legacy have substantially shaped the limited development of transitional justice at the early stage of democratisation. Influenced by civic engagement and the domestic implementation of international human rights instruments, new transitional justice mechanisms have been initiated in recent years. These bottom-up mechanisms are examined and highlighted to offer insights for advancing transitional justice and democratic consolidation.

Victim-Centred Peacemaking: The Colombian Experience

ABSTRACT This article interrogates how survivors/victims participate in peacemaking and victim-centred Transitional Justice initiatives, focusing on the role of the victims' delegations during the Santos-FARC/EP peace talks in Colombia (2012-2016). The article presents unique empirical data, drawing on sixty-eight interviews with participants from the talks. The research assesses Colombia's victim-centred approach, arguing that the delegations shaped the content of the peace agreement, influenced historic narratives of victimhood and shaped victim-perpetrator relationships, facilitating victim agency and empowerment. However, wider political and economic prerogatives and dominant TJ tendencies constrained the broader exercise of agency, whilst participants experienced episodes of disempowerment and instrumentalisation.

Museums as Platforms of Resistance: The Use of Technology in Conflict Memory, Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding

This article asks what we can learn about the role of technology as a tool of resistance in a post-conflict society by examining a case study of a museum under construction, and in the shadow of a still- unresolved conflict. We show how the virtual staging of the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica in Colombia has been crucial to its success in challenging more recent political events and in crafting national memory narratives during a period of fragile peacebuilding. We analyse a series of technologically mediated provocations and interventions mobilised by the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica in order to show how digital tools and media enabled the museum to commence its storytelling at a time of ongoing tension and dissensus. We argue that despite, or perhaps because of, the limitations of digital technologies in a predominantly rural country, these have proven a key tool in building a historical narrative around the Colombian conflict and in managing the tensions inherent in a fragile peacebuilding process. In this case study, we draw parallels between transitional justice initiatives and ongoing decolonial activities in museums, in order to reflect on the ways in which the use of technology might disrupt hegemonic narratives and traditional mnemonic practices and hierarchies.

Transitional Justice in Public and Private: Truth Commission Narratives in Greensboro

ABSTRACT In 1979, during an anti-racism march in the city in Greensboro, North Carolina, KKK and Nazi Party members opened fire on demonstrators, killing five and wounding eight. On the cusp of the 25th anniversary of these killings, efforts by community members culminated in the convening of the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GTRC) in the US. Drawing on a unique collection of public testimonies and private interviews with GTRC staff, we use a novel relational approach to array and compare discursive accounts offered in these distinct settings. We find that narratives offered in private were more varied, yet also cohesive in locating blame in social actors. Public testimony, in contrast, was more consolidated and singular, placing the majority of culpability on social structures. Based on these significant distinctions, we draw out implications for future research and policy around transitional justice initiatives.

Before the Light: A discussion with Ian Rowen on the making of Transitions in Taiwan and translating narratives of the White Terror Period

How can literature shed light onto the violence of the past? More specifically, how does Taiwanese literature in translation participate in shaping narratives of recollection of the White Terror Period in light of Taiwan’s contemporary commitment to transitional justice and global positioning as a defender of human rights? In this interview, Coraline Jortay discusses these questions with Ian Rowen, the editor of Transitions in Taiwan: Stories of the White Terror. This anthology of short stories was published in the spring of 2021 as part of the Cambria Literature in Taiwan Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, the National Human Rights Museum and National Taiwan Normal University. The conversation touches upon the making of Transitions in Taiwan in the context of contemporary narratives of the White Terror Period and transitional justice initiatives and broader issues of positionality in translation and geopolitics.

‘I was celebrating the justice that the victims got’: exploring irreconciliation among Bangladeshi human rights activists in London

AbstractThis essay investigates transnational human rights activist networks seeking justice for war crimes committed during the Bangladesh War of 1971, especially in light of the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Focusing on activists in London, it demonstrates the need to engage with transitional justice initiatives discursively and ethnographically in order to avoid losing sight of the ways in which uses of human rights concepts can veil power dimensions through universalist legalistic abstractions. The essay explores engagements with atrocities of the war by mapping the travel and uses of human rights tropes to articulate claims of justice. It showcases how in addressing the violence of the Bangladesh War, victor justice and punishment are emphasized while futures are imagined in which enemies no longer exist. In the examples, a language of justice is employed to call for prosecution, but justice is reframed so that it is equated with the impossibility of reconciling people on opposing sides during the war.

Implementing transitional justice in post-transition Central African Republic: What viable options?

The Central African Republic currently is in search of the most suitable approach to adopt in order to address serious crimes and human rights violations committed in the country in recent years. This article is a contribution to the ongoing debate relating to transitional justice options in post-transition CAR. It suggests a three-pronged policy; focusing on the perpetrators, the victims and on society generally. The proposed policy in respect of perpetrators refers to the International Criminal Court, the Special Criminal Court and the national judiciary. Amnesty could be granted to suspected perpetrators willing to cooperate fully with transitional justice institutions. Such individuals equally could be subjected to diverse forms of lustration in exchange for forgiveness. As far as victims are concerned reparation programmes should be adopted and the necessary skills provided in order to enable them, their relatives and communities to earn a living. Lastly, society-focused transitional justice initiatives could involve the effective operationalisation of the Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission, the establishment of a permanent national peace and dialogue commission and the involvement of community-based mechanisms and religious leadership. Yet, in order to increase the likelihood of success for the proposed transitional justice policy, the overall capacity of the CAR state ought to be significantly improved. Furthermore, external polities will have to refrain from interfering in the country's internal affairs and, at the same time, the international community should increase its support of the CAR.

A trans-scalar approach to peacebuilding and transitional justice: Insights from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Peace research has taken a local turn. Yet, conceptual ambiguities, risks of romanticization, and critiques of co-option of the "local" point to the need to look for novel ways to think about the interactions of actors ranging from the global to the local level. Gearoid Millar proposes a trans-scalar approach to peace based on a "consistency of purpose" and a "parity of esteem" for actors across scales. This article analyzes the concept of trans-scalarity in the peace process in Ituri, a province in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Drawing on qualitative data from more than a year of research in the DRC, I argue that while a trans-scalar approach was taken to end violence, it was not applied to transitional justice initiatives. The result was a negative, rather than a positive peace. By showing the high, but still untapped, potential of trans-scalarity, the article makes three contributions. First, it advances the debate on the local turn by adding empirical insights on trans-scalarity and further developing the concept's theoretical foundations. Second, it provides novel empirical insights on the transitional justice process in the DRC. Third, it links scholarship on peacebuilding and transitional justice, which have often remained disconnected.

Agensi Perempuan Penyintas dalam Inisiatif Keadilan Transisi di Tingkat Lokal

This article will describe the contribution of women survivors of human rights violations in promoting transitional justice initiatives at the local or community level in Indonesia. In their marginal position, both as women and victims of human rights violations, the women survivors show their agencies to face social, political, cultural and structural barriers. The initiatives and participation of women survivors in Central Sulawesi, Aceh, and Yogyakarta Province, have contributed to the emergence of transitional justice models at the local level, such as apologies for victims, health assistance programs, scholarships, and truth-telling. These transitional justice initiatives at the local level not only fill the gap in the accountability that should be borne by the state, but they also strengthen the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms organized by the state or government, both at the local and national levels.

Outsourcing Outreach: ‘Counter-translation’ of Outreach Activities at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

This article examines the outreach activities of the ongoing trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC was designed to hold the leaders of Cambodia's notoriously violent Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979) accountable. Outreach programmes have now become part of transitional justice initiatives as means to anchor their work in local and national consciousness in target countries. Using ethnographic data gathered in 2019–2020, this article explores how outreach activities have changed over time as they have become subject to new influences. I focus in particular on how some local actors have begun appropriating them in ways that represent a ‘counter-translation’ of the intentions originally propagated by the architects of the ECCC.

The Borderlands between Punitive and Non-punitive Transitional Justice: Distinct Elites and Diverging Patterns of Import/export

Abstract Transitional justice consists of different ideals and practices that both coexist and conflict. This article investigates the socio-professional borderlands between punitive and non-punitive transitional justice initiatives by analyzing elites working in either international criminal courts, or truth and reconciliation commissions. While they were marginally linked, the professional practices of these elites were structured by their distinct positions in the larger market of transitional justice. Professionals of international criminal law were tied to international institutions from where they were often on the exporting side of particular internationalized, punitive norms and practices. In contrast, professionals involved with truth and reconciliation were closely connected to states that structured their import/export of internationalized, non-punitive initiatives. Punitive and non-punitive transitional justice was characterized not only by competing ideals and practices, but was embedded in distinct elites whose proximity to or distance from the state structured the circulation of transitional justice ideas and practices.

Passing on the torch of memory: Transitional justice and the transfer of diaspora identity across generations

Abstract∞ The role diaspora actors play in transitional justice (TJ) has recently been recognized by practitioners and scholars. This article focuses on how TJ initiatives, by re-emphasizing, retelling or silencing traumas of the past, can play an important role for the transfer of diaspora identity and homeland engagement across generations. Based on research on the diasporas from Rwanda and Sri Lanka, the article highlights the different positions made available for and taken up by young people in TJ, and the ways the past is evoked by the homeland state, diaspora organizations and people they meet in their day-to-day lives. TJ initiatives, the article argues, can serve as critical events that mobilize the young generation to support – or resist – narratives of the past, while also providing them with experiences that add to a postmemory of the painful past of their parents’ homeland.

Implementation of Transitional Justice Initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Need for an Inclusive Approach

The main objective of the paper is to examine the relationship between various transitional justice mechanisms established in the aftermath of the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995 and recent reflections on political and social instability in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). With this objective, the post-conflict peace-building initiatives are analyzed for their crucial role in the establishment of peace and reconciliation, while recognizing that responses to the peace building initiatives have shown difference from one society to another. BiH is the country where transitional justice mechanisms such as the establishment of local courts and ad hoc tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, providing reparations for war victims and institutional reform process have been only partially applied. This demonstrates an obvious need for an inclusive approach that brings all four transitional justice mechanisms together, not as opponents but rather components of each other. In this article, transitional justice mechanisms such as local courts and international ad hoc tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, reparation initiatives and institutional reform processes are analyzed in the post-war context of BiH and their methods of implementation are comparatively examined. The study also provides a brief overview of the implementation of transitional justice initiatives as peace building efforts in BiH together with possible future developments.

Exploring Linkages of Traditional and Formal Mechanism of Justice and Reconciliation in South Sudan

South Sudan’s Initial transitional justice planning processes sought to engage communities on roles and viabilities of local justice in supporting transitional justice initiatives and mechanisms prescribed in the August 2015 Agreement. Nonetheless, the planning processes hit a snag, when the conflict reignited in July 2016. The working paper pursues the discussion about the role that local and indigenous reconciliation and justice processes can play in current transitional justice discourses and contends that existing practices and local knowledge of justice and reconciliation within South Sudanese communities is under researched and their role in contributing to reconciliation and justice is understated. In asserting that the transitional justice framework entrenched in the August 2015 agreement is blind to the local and indigenous justice and reconciliation mechanism, the paper highlights the complimentary role that local justice and reconciliation mechanism can play in shaping the transitional justice processes for South Sudan. The paper discusses a significant case study, the Wunlit peace processes between the Dinka and the Nuer in the 1990s which ended years of conflicts and the viabilities of longer term sustenance of reconciliation, justice and peacebuilding outcomes derived from local and indigenous processes. The paper notes that while it was often stated that, the Wunlit peace processes stood out as a significant form of indigenous and local justice and reconciliation mechanisms, it was not without shortfalls. Consequently, the paper analyses some of the gaps in the Wunlit reconciliation and peace processes and tries to extract linkages between the local, indigenous justice and reconciliation processes and the strong points of the provisions of Chapter V of the August 2015 peace agreement for longer term outcomes on transitional justice for South Sudan.

Back to the Future? Confronting the Role(s) of Natural Resources in Armed Conflict Through the Lenses of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Abstract Natural resources are critical factors in the transition from conflict to peace. Whether they contributed to, financed or fuelled armed conflict, failure to integrate natural resources into post-conflict strategies may endanger the chances of a long-lasting and sustainable peace. This article explores how Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (trcs), as transitional justice institutions, can contribute to addressing the multifaceted role of natural resources in armed conflict. Drawing insights from the practice of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian trcs in this area, the article identifies several ways in which truth-seeking bodies may reinforce post-conflict accountability and avoid the future reoccurrence of abuses and conflict by actively engaging with the natural resource-conflict link. As it is often the case with other transitional justice initiatives, trcs’ engagement with the role of natural resources in armed conflict brings along opportunities and challenges, which are contextual and influenced by domestic and international factors.

Breaking the cycle of violence: applying conflict sensitivity to transitional justice

The legacies of mass violence can, if left unaddressed, fuel future conflicts. Transitional justice seeks to address the legacies of large-scale past abuses. Despite the sensitive nature of transitional justice and recognition that initiatives can adversely influence conflict-affected contexts, there has been limited attempt to extend the application of conflict sensitivity to transitional justice. Conflict sensitivity is an approach and tool to help aid actors to understand the unintended consequences of aid and to act to minimise harm and achieve positive outcomes. Transitional justice initiatives can exacerbate tensions by replicating existing tensions; introducing resources that become a struggle for control; or challenging power and vested interests. This article argues that conflict sensitivity should be applied to transitional justice; and identifies tools and factors that could contribute to conflict sensitive transitional justice. They include promoting: broad-based participation; resonance with local actors; social cohesion; public outreach; collaboration with other sectors; and appropriate sequencing.