Transitional Justice Policies Research Articles

Museum-inspired Video Games as a Symbolic Transitional Justice Policy: Overview, Concepts and Research Directions

Video games are maturing as a medium to tell stories inspired by historical struggles and real-life experiences. In this regard, they could work as a mechanism in Transitional Justice pursuit. In this paper, we argue that games can become agents for promoting education, reconciliation and healing. We hence identify means by which museums and video games create empathy, reported in recent literature, and draw inceptive parallels between museum space design philosophies and design choices in modern video game experiences. Finally, we identify in the literature that there is a lack of a framework bringing together experts in memory and heritage studies with game developers, to derive guidelines for developing empathy-inducing games around sensitive topics. Thus, we propose a methodological approach on the creation of such a framework. This framework would instrument a collaborative effort to apply domain adaptation of the strategies and design philosophies for memory and Transitional Justice museum exhibitions to video game storytelling frameworks and mechanics.

Transitional justice perspective on property reparations in Iraq

AbstractIraq has endured decades of authoritarian rule and conflict, resulting in widespread property violations and displacement. In response, several property restitution and compensation initiatives have been implemented to pursue justice for the victims. However, questions remain about their ability to provide adequate and effective redress. This paper critically examines the flaws and challenges of these mechanisms through the lens of transitional justice. It investigates the extent to which property reparations in Iraq have been structured and implemented within the framework of a transitional justice policy, while analysing the underlying principles of the concept. The findings indicate that property reparations have fallen short due to the lack of a well‐designed programmatic framework supported by viable institutional models and procedures. Additionally, weaknesses lie in the lack of coherence between these initiatives and other institutions and policies, necessitating a holistic framework that guides institutional arrangements, financing, and prioritization strategies. Consequently, this paper argues that a more effective, holistic, and contextually grounded approach informed by transitional justice has the potential to address these issues and strengthen the reparations efforts.

The role of NGOs in the domestic implementation of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy Framework: perspectives from Uganda

This article explores the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the domestic implementation of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP). It uses Uganda as a prism through which to examine the implementation of two key constitutive elements of the AUTJP: criminal prosecutions and traditional justice. Besides reflections based on theauthor’s experience in Uganda, the analysis rests on an extensive study and review of literature and qualitative interviews. The article argues that NGOs have the potential to sequence the constitutive TJ elements of the AUTJP, where there are competing narratives of peace versus justice. While local NGOs are pivotal in fostering local ownership of TJ, the findings reveal thecritical role of NGO networks in the domestic implementation of TJ. The article concludes that there is a compelling case to be made for the continued involvement of NGOs in the domestic implementation of TJ

Widening the nation-territory gap: Transitional justice, development and spatial state-building in Colombia

This article argues that contemporary humanitarian bureaucracies in Colombia have gradually produced and reproduced specific socio-spatial and epistemological hierarchies through a conceptual device commonly referred to as the nation-territory ( nación-territorio) divide. The nation-territory divide is a way in which public servants, experts, international cooperation officers, and scholars refer to practices and strategies to “territorialize public policy” or to “bring the state down to the territories.” Through an ethnographic study of the mechanisms involved in the implementation of victims’ reparation and land restitution policy in Colombia, I describe the everyday spatial state building practices of national bureaucrats and experts tasked with “territorializing” transitional justice and development paradigms. I discuss how expert knowledge created to implement transitional justice policies fail in that they produce and reproduce the very spatial hierarchies they attempt to mitigate. I argue that in order to strengthen democracy, transitional justice paradigms and practices must challenge the hegemonic configuration of spatial state building and bureaucratic approaches to spatial representation and local governance. By exploring these bureaucratic practices, as well as spatial representations within humanitarian and transitional justice institutions in Colombia, this article contributes to a larger discussion of the implementation of territorial approaches to transitional justice and development.

Mnemonic interventions: Memory and transitional justice at a Uruguayan prison-mall

In 1986, Uruguay’s maximum security Punta Carretas Prison closed following a riot in the context of Uruguay’s transition from authoritarian civic-military dictatorship (1973-1985) to constitutional democracy. In 1994, the building reopened as Punta Carretas Shopping, one of Uruguay’s most luxurious shopping malls. In this article, I show how two site-specific installations at the prison-mall—the temporary photography exhibition, Brava: Memoria fotográfica de Punta de las Carretas (2019) and the permanent memorial installation, Memorial Ex Penal de Punta Carretas (2020)—put forth distinct versions of the past to shape the memory of Punta Carretas. I call these mnemonic interventions because they interrupt the shopping trip and divert attention away from leisure and consumption toward remembrance, provoking the shopper to engage with the space of the former prison and its history. I demonstrate how different stakeholders struggle over memory in Uruguay in a context in which impunity undermines efforts toward truth and justice. Mnemonic interventions at Punta Carretas Shopping reveal the ongoing struggle over how the past should be remembered in Uruguay decades after the transition to democracy, showing the impact of recent transitional justice policies to demarcate sites of memory and resistance.

Amnesty and the Limits of Transitional Justice in Brazil: The Case of Expelled Low-Ranking Soldiers, 1964–2014

Abstract This article shows the continuities of the military dictatorship and the limits of transitional justice in Brazil, arguing that the violations the military regime inflicted on certain groups persisted over three decades after democratization. Between 1964 and 1985 the military officers who took power strived to eliminate opposition to their rule from all sectors of society. Inside the armed forces, they expelled over 6,500 officers and soldiers from their ranks after accusing them of subversion. Between 1979 and 2014 the state created policies to start a democratic transition and address the civil and human rights violations perpetrated during military rule. It offered amnesty and reparations to individuals who had their political rights stripped from them after their names were published in Institutional Acts, legal instruments created by the military government to justify the political persecution of its opponents. Yet, transitional justice policies failed to address different mechanisms the dictatorship used to eliminate opposition, such as Air Force Decree 1,104, which determined that soldiers would be hired on four-year contracts. Masquerading it as a tool to regulate the organization of the Air Force, military officers used Decree 1,104 to expel soldiers whom the regime saw as politically subversives. This article shows how the transitional justice policies created in Brazil were insufficient to deal with the multiple ways the dictatorship punished its political opponents.

Human rights organizations and transitional justice agenda-setting: Evidence from peace agreement provisions

How do human rights organizations (HROs) shape transitional justice policy in countries emerging from conflict? We investigate this question in the context of peace processes, a vital stage when many key post-conflict policies are determined. Using granular data on the content of peace agreements, we show that the robust presence of HROs significantly increases the likelihood of provisions promising criminal accountability for wartime abuses. Yet this association is conditional on prior ratification of international human rights instruments and the existence of impartial third parties in the peace process—background factors that lower barriers to effective HRO advocacy. These findings reveal a novel pathway through which HROs secure transitional justice on the national agenda after conflict.

How does transitional justice matter? Expanding and refining quantitative research on the effects of transitional justice policies

Although the field of transitional justice is expanding rapidly, research on its effects remains underdeveloped, despite its presumed importance for human rights and democratic consolidation. The field suffers from incompatible approaches and definitions, disputed causal models and conclusions, and a multiplicity of dependent variables. Quantitative work struggles to ground measurement and hypothesis testing in nuanced conceptions of transitional justice’s causal processes. Robust understanding of effects requires integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches while balancing accuracy with parsimony. This article first revisits and builds on a key quantitative work: Olsen et al.’s Transitional Justice in Balance (2010). Using an expanded dataset to repeat their descriptive and statistical analysis of the effects of transitional justice, the article finds results only marginally consistent with their original findings. This reassessment is the basis for proposed revisions to their causal model, conceptualization, measurement, and hypothesis testing. The proposed approach includes a two-step causal model, differentiated measurement of transitional justice mechanisms, and hypotheses that are more deeply grounded in the insights of qualitative studies. These revisions provide a framework with rich potential for comparative quantitative analysis of the effects of transitional justice.

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.

Art and Memory as Reconciliation Tool? Re-Thinking Reconciliation Strategies in the Western Balkans

Abstract The violent demise of Yugoslavia and the bloody period that marked most of the 1990s in this region have sparked academic interest in the peacebuilding and reconciliation initiatives which emerged after the conflict. Scholarly literature on the subject went in the directions of transitional justice, social psychology and socio-political approaches. However, an unexplored alley of scholarly interest remains in the role of the arts in these processes. By examining the role of arts and memory creation, this introductory article posits these against the background of a problematic reconciliation process in post-conflict areas of the Western Balkans as its core topic. Situated in a post-Yugoslav geographic space, where ethnic conflicts still hinder development, people rest much on the interpretation of the meaning of lived experiences, and the role of images, arts, myths and stories, which are used to either create or dissemble the path to peace between the many ethnic communities that inhabit this area of Europe. The use of several overlapping, yet differently interpreted themes relating to lived experiences and history shows them as symbolic transitional justice policies. They broadly deal with how such knowledges are interpreted through lived moments, such as cinema, museums and public monuments.

Legitimation crisis, memory, and United States exceptionalism: Lessons from post-communist Eastern Europe

The article examines how the experiences of post-communist transitional justice policies could inform current controversies in the United States regarding its reckoning with the past. To lay the ground for this analysis, three facets of American exceptionalism—the dual state reality, the triumphalist myth, and the denialist myth—are identified as principal obstacles that have preempted any substantive reparations for the crimes against humanity perpetrated against enslaved Africans and their descendants. This is followed by a presentation of how the 1989 revolutions in East and Central Europe failed to promote an inclusive and pluralistic model of the past. Instead, current representations of the past rooted in essentialist and ethnocentric historical narratives are weaponized by non-democratic political actors. Finally, the authors caution against misguided representations of historical trauma and memory wars in the United States that could potentially reproduce White supremacist ideologies and escalate existent political and cultural divisions.

Land, Opportunism, and Displacement in Civil Wars: Evidence from Colombia

It is common for combatants to deliberately force civilians to flee their homes, resulting in incalculable loss for millions around the world. Existing accounts suggest combatants displace civilians whom they suspect are loyal to their opponents. And yet violence is also frequently motivated by local actors taking advantage of war to pursue private interests unrelated to wartime loyalties. However, little evidence exists of these dynamics with respect to displacement. Drawing on theories of opportunistic violence, I test an account in which surges in demand for land create incentives for elites to prey on peasants for their land. Combining new municipal and survey data from the Colombian armed conflict, I find evidence that the expansion of a land-intensive industry—African palm oil—precipitated opportunistic displacement by elites and paramilitary allies. The results demonstrate how elites can take advantage of war to engage in private accumulation and have implications for transitional justice policy.

Do Transitional Justice Museums Persuade Visitors? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Do transitional justice museums persuade visitors? We implement a novel field experiment at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, to understand the effects of governments’ attempts to shape citizens’ attitudes through symbolic transitional justice policies such as museums and memorials. Our findings suggest that though perceptions of the museum vary along ideological lines, Chilean university students display greater support for democratic institutions, are more likely to reject institutions associated with the repressive period, and are more supportive of restorative transitional justice policies after visiting regardless of their ideological priors. We test for the persistence of these results and find that some of the effects endure for six months following the museum visit. We find support for the notion that emotional appeals deployed in the museum can shift citizen attitudes, which might have implications for processes of reconciliation.

The Price of Transitional Justice: A Cost‐Benefit Analysis of its Mechanisms in Post‐Revolution Phase

Transitional Justice [hereinafter T.J.] in the post-revolution phase refers to the policies that aim to deal with the autocratic past-regime violations against its people to achieve accountability and democracy and promote human rights and the rule of law. To achieve these goals, the United Nations, within its Rule of Law Initiative, issued in 2010, a set of five mechanisms that work as guidelines for nations recovering from conflicts. I argue that whatever the mechanism or combination selected by a society transforming from an autocracy into democracy is, the nature of these mechanisms requires a trade-off between multiple considerations. To explain this inevitable trade-off, I go through each mechanism in detail, analyze it from both legal and economic perspectives, and then provide a basic cost-benefit analysis. I suggest that transitional justice as a constitutional arrangement requires a holistic approach in its adoption and application because this initial cost-benefit analysis cannot be standardized for all cases. I also suggest that transitional justice policies that take into account proportionality, a combination of different mechanisms, customization of the mechanisms upon the relevant case, and adopting these policies in the formality of basic or organic laws may be expected to have the most effective outcomes achieving the goals of T.J. with the least legal complications.

Do TJ policies cause backlash? Evidence from street name changes in Spain

Memories of old conflicts often shape domestic politics long after these conflicts end. Contemporary debates about past civil wars and/or repressive regimes in different parts of the world suggest that these are sensitive topics that might increase political polarization, particularly when transitional justice policies are implemented and political parties mobilize discontentment with such policies. One such policy recently debated in Spain is removing public symbols linked to a past civil war and subsequent authoritarian regime (i.e., Francoism). However, the empirical evidence on its impact is still limited. This article attempts to fill this gap by examining the political consequences of street renaming. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that the removal of Francoist street names has contributed to an increase of electoral support for a new far-right party, Vox, mainly at the expense of a traditional right-wing conservative party, PP. Our results suggest that revisiting the past can cause a backlash among those ideologically aligned with the perpetrator, and that some political parties can capitalize on this.

PRINCIPLES OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

Background. The issue of reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories was emphasized by the President of Ukraine as one of the priority areas of work of the Commission on Legal Reform. Instructing to develop a concept of transitional justice in 2019, the President said that it should include measures to compensate victims of war, bring to trial those guilty of serious crimes, realize the right to receive the truth about the course of the conflict. However, neither the country’s leadership nor the scientific community has yet determined the principles on which these measures should be implemented. Analysis of recent research and publications has revealed that, when thinking about the principles of transitional justice policy, human rights activists and scholars use such language clichés as «directions», «measures», «main principles»,«postulates», «essence», «policy principles to support transitional justice». This creates some confusion that needs to be eliminated. The aim of this article is to formulate the principles of the Ukrainian model of transitional justice. Materials and methods. During the study, both general and special methods of cognition were used: dialectical, terminological, systemic, formal-logical, generalization, structural-functional, modelingand forecasting. The information base of the study was the norms of international law, national legislation and draft laws, expert opinions, works of domestic and foreign scientists. Results. The article considers the principles on which the Ukrainian model of transitional justice should be based. Taking into account the fact that at the normative and doctrinal levels the consolidation of the principles of the domestic model of transitional justice has not yet taken place, the author offers his vision of the system of principles of the domestic model of transitional justice and outlines promising areas for their practical implementation. Conclusion.The author believes that the basic system of principles of the domestic model of transitional justice should look like this: the primacy of international law; objective (judicial) truth; universal justice; post-conflict modernization of public relations; efficiency and timeliness. Keywords: transitional justice, principles, model, measures, directions, reintegration of temporarily occupied territories.

Africa’s Transitional Justice Policy Making: Exercising Epistemic Agency and Pushing the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

Africa’s Transitional Justice Policy Making: Exercising Epistemic Agency and Pushing the Frontiers of Transitional Justice

What Happened to Transitional Justice in Croatia After the EU Accession?

This paper proposes to see Croatia’s becoming a member state of the European Union in 2013 as a particular critical juncture that created uncertainty over the type of decisions the government would take in the field of transitional justice once international pressure had stopped. It compares the period before and after the accession by looking into the three elements of transitional justice policy that were given priority by the EU conditionality framework – fighting impunity for war crimes, fostering reconciliation and respect for and protection of minority rights. It finds that all three have deteriorated in the post-accession period. On the one hand, the findings illustrate the power of international pressure, but on the other hand, they question the overall effectiveness of the conditionality policy, as it seems to not have affected deeper societal issues at stake and has not resulted in true transformation.

The Promise and Perils of Urban Land Restitution in Latvia

ABSTRACT∞ In this article we address the transitional justice policy of restitution in kind with a case study of urban land reform in Latvia. Contributing to scholarship on the challenge of property reforms after generations of dispossession, we examine the economic, social and political meanings of property restitution in this post-Soviet context. Using process-tracing techniques to examine the creation and implementation of Latvia’s policy in the aftermath of independence from the Soviet Union, we illustrate specific challenges of restitution in kind where property changed through the construction of new buildings occupied by tenants. Financial disputes between landowners and tenants map on to ethnic and political divisions in Latvia, and a policy once seen as a remedy is now in need of a remedy.

Transitional Justice and Democratic Consolidation in the Post-Communist Space: A Comparative Review of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia

Abstract In this comparative review, I first evaluate scholarly findings attempting to dis/prove a relationship between transitional justice and the consolidation of democracy. Second, I outline several criteria for ‘democratic’ transitional justice in order to be able to judge transitional justice policies. Third, I examine and judge transitional justice policies of the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia by these criteria. Last, I argue that transitional justice is neither a prerequisite for the successful consolidation of democracy nor inherently democratic unless it is carried out in coordination with the ideals of liberal democracy, which might support the achievement of peace and societal stability in a transition period.