ABSTRACT∞ This essay proposes an epistemic, methodological and political reflection on the collaborative research/creation work carried out over approximately five years in the rural area of the municipality of Icononzo, Colombia. The reflection focuses on the conversations held with Janeth, a signatory of the Final Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP, who describes themself as ‘a girl-boy.’ This Note from the field also aims to recover the ways in which creative practices (audiovisual, sound and graphic) developed with Janeth and other peace signatories, and with community researchers, have been useful for discussing the past and the present, imagining possible futures and understanding how Janeth’s daily practices can be conceived as cuir pedagogies, within the Colombian context of transitional justice.

Centering disability justice in active transportation transitions: A conceptual counter-cartography

ABSTRACT This article presents a qualitative analysis of the EU's approaches to human rights violations in selected states’ ‘troubled pasts’, employing insights from and critiques of the interdisciplinary field of ‘transitional justice’. By viewing the EU's approaches to troubled pasts through the lens of transitional justice, it is possible to trace a complex web of external and internal policies that have been invoked to address them. Whilst in the Common Foreign and Security Policy, there is express engagement with the notion of transitional justice, its engagement with its own Member States’ troubled pasts is more obscure, involving creative use of its ‘competences’ on citizenship to pursue policies of ‘remembrance’ as well as hosting significant debates in the European Parliament about the adoption of European-wide symbolic measures of commemoration. That these policy areas would be invoked in the way that they have been is not self-evident, and so by employing a comprehensive understanding of the EU's complex institutional structure, the article explains both how they were identified and then the range of measures adopted through them. This then facilitates a novel and extensive appraisal of the EU's measures to address the selected states’ troubled pasts through its patchwork of transitional justice interventions.

Despite being physically divided in 1974, no peace agreement has been made in Cyprus since then. Amongst the issues awaiting solution, perhaps the most difficult one is the property issue. Problems related to property rights have been brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on several occasions. This study focuses on the Immovable Property Commission (IPC), which was established in accordance with the jurisprudence of the ECtHR. In a frozen conflict environment, the ECtHR, although not a transitional justice mechanism for resolving human rights violations in armed conflicts, occasionally plays an effective role in pressuring national authorities to repair the destructive effects of conflict periods. This study assesses the effectiveness of the IPC’s role in addressing property issues in general and within this specific context.

The article examines the dynamics and consequences of violent conflict in eastern Ethiopia. Property rights, greed–grievance, and environmental scarcity theories were employed to explain the violence. Results from interviews and discussions indicate that land-use change, livestock raiding, and contention over regional administration border defined along ethnic lines are the key causes of the conflict. Manipulation by powerful political elites in the federal government in orchestrating inter-regional tension has sustained the violence. The conflict has generated social, economic, and environmental impacts. Attempts to resolve the conflict have undermined customary leaders trusted by community members. Thus, peacebuilding efforts should commence with identifying political elites manipulating relationships, undertaking political reform, and implementing transitional justice system. There is also a need for the federal and regional political institutions to engage trustworthy customary leaders in the peace process.

Given various peace agreements and transitional justice programmes, the gendered aspects of reparations are frequently overlooked, resulting in inadequate retribution for survivors, the majority of whom are women and girls. The paper investigates how African feminist policy ideas might influence reparations frameworks that are both inclusive and transformational. The paper assesses the feasibility of gender-sensitive reparations programmes using empirical evidence from post-conflict settings such as Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda, highlighting key actions such as establishing survivor-centered reparations funds, incorporating psychosocial care into national health services, and ensuring women's participation in reparations design and monitoring. The paper argues that by focusing on survivors' perspectives and feminist ideals of justice, reparations can serve as both a healing tool and a catalyst for gender-equitable peacebuilding and development on the continent. Finally, the paper contends that reparations must go beyond symbolic gestures and offer survivors with material, psychological, and socioeconomic assistance that truly restores their dignity, agency, and opportunity.

ABSTRACT∞ This study examines grassroots transitional justice through the Streets of Jaffa project, which commemorates erased Palestinian street names within a deeply divided and asymmetrical political context. Drawing on field research with Jewish and Palestinian residents, the analysis shifts attention from civil society’s intentions to audience responses as key indicators of how bottom-up transitional justice initiatives are received and contested under conditions of enduring ethnonational asymmetry. The findings reveal that these reactions are shaped by class, national identity and lived experiences of asymmetry, producing ambivalent outcomes that both challenge and reproduce existing power relations. The study contributes methodologically by analyzing a transitional justice project embedded in everyday urban life, exposing an entire population to acts of memory activism. While the research period precedes the events of October 7, 2023, the analysis remains relevant for understanding the persistence and limits of grassroots transitional justice in the profoundly altered reality that followed.

This article offers a critical reflection on the relationships bet- ween law, memory, and the right to memory in the Colombian context, based on the analysis of academic narratives found in doctoral dissertations. It starts from the premise that memory is not only a field of symbolic dispute but also a right under cons- truction—particularly relevant in contexts of post-agreement and transitional justice. Methodology: A systematic documentary review was conducted of doctoral theses from three Colombian educational institutions, focusing on historical memory, memories of the recent past, and subaltern memories. The PRISMA pro- tocol guided the review, enabling rigorous criteria for inclusion, exclusion, and analysis. Findings were triangulated with the Final Report of Colombia’s Truth Commission (CEV), enhancing dia- logue between academic production and official truth. Results: The review identified tensions and openings around the right to memory, highlighting its plural, situated, and contested nature. The analyzed dissertations reveal experiences of resistance, ins- titutional silences, and pedagogical strategies for building living memories from subalternized communities. Divergences with hegemonic legal frameworks were evident, suggesting a broader and more relational understanding of law. Conclusions: Memory, far from being a closed archive, emerges as a field of political and epistemic action. The right to memory must be reconfigured from below, recognizing the other narratives that inhabit territories, schools, and bodies that resist forgetting.

Abstract The use of amnesties in transitional justice remains a contentious issue. The fight against impunity at the international level has left little room for the application of amnesties for international crimes and human rights abuses. Nevertheless, amnesty measures continue to be applied in many jurisdictions and the permissibility of conditional amnesties enacted as part of wider processes of reconciliation remains under debate. This paper argues that the judicial discussion of amnesties under international law has followed dynamics of path dependence, where initial decisions adopted in very specific contexts have strongly determined the subsequent treatment of amnesties in completely different situations. The influence of early decisions rejecting blanket amnesties in the aftermath of autocratic regimes in Latin America pulled domestic and international courts towards a general rejection of amnesties. However, in more recent years, transitional justice ideas have influenced the trajectory of the discussion on amnesties, opening courts to the permissibility of conditional and negotiated amnesties accompanied by alternative mechanisms of accountability. Mapping the judicial dialogue on amnesties, this paper shows a cautious shift in the approach to conditional amnesties. This is significant because international courts have mostly engaged with the most problematic amnesties, leaving some uncertainty around the way conditional amnesties enacted as part of complex transitional frameworks will be evaluated. Reading a significant number of decisions from different jurisdictions, this essay aims to shed some light on the way domestic courts have addressed the discussion of amnesties when they are part of wider efforts to bring peace, reconciliation, and democracy.

Transitional Justice is a legal and political approach employed in societies that have experienced violent conflicts, often stemming from authoritarian regimes, to address severe human rights violations committed during such periods. Its objective is to promote reconciliation and peacebuilding through a combination of legal and non-legal measures. This article argues that this approach is suitable for victims of drug trafficking, particularly in Mexico, and identifies the outstanding tasks related to restitution and reconciliation.

This article examines the exclusion of women in Kashmir through an intersectional lens, highlighting how overlapping patriarchies—state, military, religious, and cultural—compound women’s vulnerabilities in a protracted conflict. Drawing on phenomenological and ethnographic methods, it analyses narratives from women of varied backgrounds to uncover both visible and invisible forms of exclusion. Findings show that conflict-induced restrictions intersect with pre-existing gender-related norms to curb women’s ability to access legal, social, and economic provisions. The study contributes to debates on gender and conflict by shifting focus from resistance frameworks to everyday exclusions and survival strategies.

ABSTRACT A just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has been associated with a variety of duties, including climate change mitigation and promoting procedural, distributive, and recognitional justice. Several authors have discussed transitional justice tensions between the need for rapid greenhouse gas emissions reductions and other aspects of a just transition, such as fair inclusion of stakeholders. We make the case that such trade-offs are often uncertain, and that this has important moral implications tied to inductive risks. Inductive risks arise when decision-making requires accepting or rejecting an uncertain statement, where the moral harms of errors may be asymmetrical. This line of reasoning suggests that very strong evidence should be required to accept that imposing injustices on marginalized populations is necessary for rapid emissions reductions.

We examine how connections shaped transitional justice during France’s post-WWII democratic transition. Parliamentarians who had supported the Vichy regime faced a two-stage purge process involving two courts. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that law graduates—an influential group with ties to one of the courts—had a 10 to 14 percentage point higher acquittal rate. We analyze 17,589 documents in individual defendants’ files to explain this difference. According to this analysis, indirect connections—connections through third parties—enabled transmission of information to the judges, highlighting how connected elite groups can navigate transitions despite institutional safeguards. (JEL D72, D83, K41, N44)

It is indicated that the full-scale war against Ukraine has exacerbated the problem of ensuring the right of victims of war crimes to restitution and compensation for losses in the context of systemic violations of international humanitarian law. Restoring justice after the end of hostilities should include not only criminal prosecution of the perpetrators, but also guaranteeing full compensation for material and moral damage to the victims. Restitution and compensation for losses are key components of transitional justice, designed to restore violated rights and form the basis for post-conflict reconstruction of society. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal, evidentiary, and institutional mechanisms for the implementation of the right to restitution and compensation for damage suffered by victims of war crimes in the context of the armed aggression against Ukraine. Restitution and compensation are examined as key elements of transitional justice aimed at restoring status quo ante, ensuring justice, and compensating losses incurred by natural and legal persons as a result of violations of international humanitarian law. The study analyzes international legal standards enshrined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly, and the case law of international tribunals, which recognize the inalienable right of victims to the restoration of property rights, compensation for losses, and reparations for harm caused in the context of armed conflict and the imposition of martial law. Particular attention is paid to the importance of an adequate evidentiary framework as a prerequisite for the effective realization of compensation rights in judicial and extrajudicial proceedings. The article outlines methodologies for documenting destruction through the systematic collection of photo and video materials, recording witness testimonies, and preserving title documents and cadastral data. It examines innovative practices involving digital tools, including OSINT technologies, geospatial analytics, satellite imagery, and blockchain registries, to ensure the authenticity, verification, and long- term preservation of evidence. National and international mechanisms for documenting damage are analyzed, as well as the role of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in establishing causal links between the actions of the aggressor and the damage inflicted, and in securing the recovery of reparations. The necessity of interagency coordination to enhance the quality of evidence and the effectiveness of victims’ rights protection is substantiated.

This study aims to examine the war damages in Sudan from two complementary perspectives: the fundamental jurisprudential perspective, based on the texts of Islamic law and its objectives to protect life, property, and infrastructure; and an analytical legal perspective, based on Sudanese national legislation and relevant international agreements. The problem with the research lies in the absence of a comprehensive approach that balances the legal reference and the legal framework for addressing the damages caused by wars, as well as the weak practical implementation of the laws in force in Sudan and ensuring compensation for those affected. The methodology of the study is based on a descriptive-analytical approach, in addition to a comparative approach between Islamic jurisprudence and international law, with an analysis of cases from the Sudanese reality as an applied accounting of damages. The most important findings of the study are: first, there is agreement between Islamic jurisprudence and international law on prohibiting attacks on lives and property in the context of conflict; second, there is a significant gap between the legal frameworks adopted and the actual reality in Sudan in terms of implementation and compensation; third, the study emphasizes the importance of transitional justice and national reconciliation as mechanisms for rebuilding society and promoting social peace.

ABSTRACT This article examines how the omission of queer experiences from Poland’s transitional justice processes after the fall of communism has contributed to ongoing systemic discrimination and state-sponsored homophobia. Using Operation Hyacinth – a nationwide police action in the 1980s that targeted homosexual men for registration and surveillance – as a case study, it investigates the absence of truth telling, reparations and institutional acknowledgement within post-1989 democratic reforms. The article conceptualizes this exclusion as an ‘anti-queer continuum,’ whereby failure to address past injustices facilitates their reproduction in contemporary Poland, visible in anti-LGBTQ+ political rhetoric, the establishment of ‘LGBT ideology-free zones’ and persistent legal inequalities. Drawing on queer and feminist critiques of transitional justice, a systematic literature review and existing empirical and archival studies, the article argues for a rethinking of transitional justice frameworks to include sexual and gender minorities. It concludes that without queering transitional justice, cycles of queer erasure and violence will persist under the guise of democratic governance.

ABSTRACT∞ In these notes from the field, we reflect on the place of LGBTQ+ rights discourses in the processes of negotiating transitional justice in Armenia and on our experiences of doing research on this topic in the country against the backdrop of the Karabakh wars and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We offer methodological reflections on doing research in Armenia as outsiders-insiders – neither Armenians nor speakers of the language, yet researchers coming from what is broadly defined as the ‘post-Soviet’ space and sharing multiple cultural codes with our interlocutors. We focus on our strategies of building trust and establishing networks of care in the complex context of multiple overlapping military conflicts, where the politics of positionality – the language, in particular – becomes extremely important. We argue that Armenian queer-feminist actors do not merely seek inclusion in transitional justice but dissidently reimagine it, grounding its meaning in care, vulnerability and collective resistance.

ABSTRACT What do Tamil civilians want in order to reconcile with a victorious state, and what underlying narratives shape these demands? This article demonstrates that the social legacies of rebel governance matter for post-war reconciliation between citizens and the state. Tamils in northern Sri Lanka – regardless of past wartime governance experience – prioritise transitional justice and inclusive service delivery as signs of citizen-state reconciliation. However, those who lived under consolidated LTTE institutions during the war emphasise mutual respect through a reciprocal social contract with the state, while those who lived under Sri Lankan military control emphasise acknowledgement of past harms.

Abstract Over quarter of a century since the end of the war, “Kosovo as a case study” continues to be studied in the realm of post-conflict reconstruction, (international) statebuilding and transitional justice. In this article, the authors argue that the reification of Kosovo as a case study has had two interrelated impacts in international relations (IR) literature and its sub-disciplines. First, the traditional literature has treated Kosovo as a black box: self-evident and self-explanatory in its problematique, yet, (nearly) impossible to solve. Second, the rendering of Kosovo as an inherently conflict-ridden context approached almost exclusively through the lens of reified ethnic and national categories and international intervention overlooks or neglects wider socio-cultural developments, the societal and individual impacts of its multiple transitions, ideological shifts and struggles, demographic trends as well as broader trans-border and transnational phenomena. This introductory article argues that – despite an emerging trend in literature, spearheaded by scholars from Kosovo, including the contributors in this special issue, or the wider Balkan, that seeks to turn the gaze away from macro-politics of international intervention and statebuilding to assemblages of hopes, disillusionments, crises, resistances and (counter)solidarities – much of Kosovo’s peculiarities, tensions, and contradictions remain unaddressed.

Youth of color experiencing low-income in the United States face multiple human rights violations: overpolicing, community violence, racial discrimination, and insufficient voice in the programs and policies that impact their current and future lives. To accomplish transitional justice, participatory processes are needed that elicit youths' cultural strengths and wisdom about themselves, their social conditions, services they find helpful, and why those services are helpful. This study highlights findings from a photovoice that elicited youths' perspectives about a cross-age mentoring out-of-school-program. Responding to "What does mentoring mean to you?" 147 youth took photographs in their communities and wrote narratives about the photographs' meanings. The research team, including youth coresearchers, conducted a thematic and content analysis of the participants' narratives. Youth were highly articulate about the specific program elements that would uplift their peers, and why those elements are impactful. Through qualitative analysis of youths' photographs and narratives, this study reveals the youths' "folk theories" about their program's mechanism of action. Youth described mentoring as a nurturing family, friendship, community, care, love, acceptance, trust, communication, and vulnerability. They thoughtfully described culturally relevant "folk theories" of how cross-age mentoring fosters children's development, counteracting stressful high-burden contexts. Analyzing youths' metaphors for the nurturing process in cross-age mentoring indicated how much they valued caring for each other, creativity, and supporting positive life trajectories for each other while overcoming poverty and discrimination. When offered opportunities for creative self-expression such as photovoice, youth can be insightful partners in resisting the downward pull of human rights violations and theorize interventions and nurturing processes that develop their resilience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).