Transitional Justice Research Articles

Private Military and Security Companies as a Legacy of War: Lessons Learned From the Former Yugoslavia

AbstractThe war in the former Yugoslavia produced many highly trained and experienced combatants, some of whom engaged not only in a variety of organized criminal activities such as the illicit trade of natural resources, trafficking and corruption, but also war crimes. In the post-war environment various criminal groups took advantage of post-conflict transition conditions which enabled them to be transformed into legitimate legal entities. The failure to investigate and hold to account those involved in criminal activity meant that demobilized soldiers turned to highly profitable, legally constituted private military and security companies (PMSCs). This is coupled with poorly designed security sector reforms that often fail to enhance effective and accountable security that is respectful of human rights. In recent years, similar transformations of many former combatants and criminal groups into legitimate PMSCs around the globe have raised new concerns about their growing activities across different sectors. This article uses the former Yugoslavia as an example from which to highlight some of the increasingly common problems posed by the creation of private military and security providers globally, as a result of the current uncoordinated processes to prevent armed conflicts. The article reflects on the need to avoid smart sanctions and use other foreign policy tools, while calling for an integrated approach to security sector reform and transitional justice that is necessary for sustainable peace.

The Post-Ongwen Case Period and the Reconciliation Process in Northern Uganda: Local Communities as a Site of Knowledge

Abstract By providing victims with more space in the Ongwen case, the International Criminal Court (icc) has significantly contributed to the healing of the trauma and community reconciliation in northern Uganda. That said, this court has also raised issues that could affect local efforts to achieve peace, namely the positioning of victims of child soldiers vis-à-vis criminal child soldiers. Drawing on qualitative data collected through focus group discussions with some community members from locations under investigation by the icc, this sociolegal study examines the victims’ narratives about child soldiers and the different ideas of human rights that emerge. Then, it explores how these ideas may shape future transitional justice mechanisms designed in the global sphere. Finally, it discusses the extent to which they may impact the relevance of current justice initiatives. Overall, this paper analyzes the substantive effect of victim participation in the Ongwen case on local peacebuilding initiatives in northern Uganda.

Racial (In)justice in Brazil: Reconstructing the Subaltern Memories of Poor and Black Women in the Brazilian Dictatorship

ABSTRACT The Brazilian military-corporate dictatorship faced the resistance and mobilization of several marginalized groups. In this article, we reconstruct the subaltern memories of Black and poor women from the outskirts of São Paulo who participated in Christian Base Communities and the Cost-of-Living Movement, and we show how their mobilization was supported by social movements across the country. Despite their dimension and impact, a report by the Brazilian National Truth Commission fails to recognize their role in the country’s democratic transition and the violence suffered by marginalized groups. These memories support a reflection on the myth of ‘racial democracy’ in Brazil as a general denial of racial violence throughout the country’s history, which leaves intact its structures of injustice. We argue that the reconstruction of subaltern memories can have a significant impact on transitional justice and recover their critical role in democracy.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Abstract The article aims to discuss some of the underlying factors that have significantly hindered the ability of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, or ‘the Tribunal’) to fulfil its mandate — bringing those responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others to justice, and thereby bringing justice to victims. Since its inception, the Tribunal has been received with mixed feelings. On the one hand, given the inability and unwillingness of Lebanese domestic courts to deal with gross human rights violations — including heinous terrorist crimes — the establishment of a judicial body was considered indispensable to ending impunity for such crimes. On the other hand, the Tribunal has been perceived as selective and the outcome of a politically-convenient temporary impetus. Adopting a Third World Approach to International Law, the article argues that the model applied in establishing the STL adopted most of the shortcomings of international criminal justice. Furthermore, considering the perceptions of the Tribunal’s legacy among victims and the public in Lebanon and in the wider region, it is no less contentious from a transitional justice perspective. The article concludes that such a model, due to its legal, structural, policy, and management shortcomings, has failed to fulfil its mandate and there are lessons that can be learnt from this contentious experience.

Street-Based Social Work Praxis: An “Un-Manual” for Advancing Human Rights and Identifying Social Safety Net Failures With Youth of Color Experiencing Poverty

Street-based social work responds to the “social disaster” of U.S. youth of color experiencing poverty who fall through the cracks of existing social safety nets. Drawing from 17 years of feedback from youth clients about street-based service provision in university–community partnerships, the flexible street-based model uses several trauma-focused, strengths-based, and humanistic modalities to provide youth with a positive childhood experience and support their self-determination, undergirded by a culturally sensitive accompaniment approach. Street-based social work can be a transitional justice, human rights–based counterforce to mass criminalization of youth of color by supporting their efforts at redress. As a translational science approach, street-based social work yields knowledge about social safety net failures, how policies can be improved, and effective scaling of evidence-based interventions.

Law, political economy and war reparation: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

AbstractWhat are the after‐effects of the Bosnia and Herzegovinian (BH) transition from a post‐socialist, post‐genocide, and post‐ethno‐nationalist state into a European liberal democracy? This article makes a case for war reparation and argues that while poverty reduction has not been among the stated aims of transitional justice mechanisms, it is of critical importance to study war victims' deprivation in the context of historical patterns of structural injustice and examine liberal reconstruction policies that failed to provide compensation and legal redress for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of humanitarian law. The article uses the historical sociology approach as a method of analysis to investigate how moving away from a socialist to a capitalist economic model, from war to peace, and from one party political system to liberal democracy has resulted in structural injustice and growing levels of poverty that adversely impact most vulnerable Bosnians. The article presents an argument that the lack of post‐war reparation programs, coupled with an inadequate emphasis on political regime change, poverty reduction programs and social and economic rights such as access to welfare, cash assistance, food, transportation, education, pension, and disability benefits to ensure the quality of living is detrimental to everyday lives of war victims and people who live at the bottom of the society.

Transitional Justice and Redress for Racial Injustices against Marginalized Minorities: Lessons from Indigenous Twa People in Post-Genocide Rwanda

ABSTRACT∞ This article addresses the question of how countries respond to racial injustices through transitional justice. It draws on the case of Rwanda and explores the experiences of the marginalized indigenous Twa minorities with transitional justice implemented after the 1994 genocide through the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission and Gacaca courts. The lessons from Rwanda highlight the limitations of transitional justice in providing redress for racial injustices of marginalized minorities when it is practised within an authoritarian political context. The article discusses how the transitional justice approach in Rwanda contributed to the construction of a flawed record of the past and marginalized the racial realities of Rwandans by imposing an official historical narrative. It was also used as a tool of the government to negate racial injustices against the most marginalized communities of Twa people but also to preserve racial injustices and human rights violations against them by denying their ethnic identity and indigenous way of life.

From infamy to truth. Epistemic coloniality and knowledges in resistance: an approach to the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to show the regime of truth in the institutional commissions that have the objective of restoring history by establishing a democratic, equitable, comprehensive, inclusive and fair criterion against the attempts of re-victimization and suppression of memory that Western political and cultural traditions have installed through their mechanisms of power.Design/methodology/approachBased on the analysis of the cases of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, they establish the material conditions from which prejudices and hegemonic stereotypes are intertwined to reproduce serious violations of human rights in democratic political and epistemic frameworks. The colonial function of the truth commissions in Mexico is analyzed, which are presented as mechanisms for social development, political and colonial reproduction of liberal democracy.FindingsThe qualitative results allow considering the way in which the different truth commissions in Mexico have been strongly linked to epistemic mechanisms in which truth and justice favor the reproduction of established relationships based on race, social class and gender. Especially in the so-called democratic transition, violence, truth and justice come together to highlight power relations in situations that have been disavowed by the intelligentsia.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the research are found in the historical configuration of the truth commissions in Mexico. The data, references and assessments are crossed by the initial function of the truth commissions and the establishment of apparatuses and mechanisms based on transitional justice. Based on this, it can be considered a methodological oversight to shift the analysis of truth commissions toward a critical assessment of the truth as a regime of government and hegemonic and colonization criteria from two very specific cases.Originality/valueThe originality of the work is found in the critical discernment of truth as a political category and the coloniality of power.

Transitional justice, a pending subject

This article shows important aspects that have to do with Transitional Justice as a pending subject in Mexican Law for social development with a descriptive, critical and analytical methodology that refers to the design of the research, critical observation of problems and analysis of sources of information that will be carried out on the topic in the context of the contemporary Mexican political situation. Several relevant topics are presented with a pluralistic perspective based on traditional justice and the theory of law, with the purpose of exposing how this model of justice works and under what criteria in our country. The first topic is the definition of Transitional Justice, the prevailing need to apply it in Mexican law as well as a current overview of the usefulness of its development to establish a deductive reference framework that allows us to elucidate what the current situation is like. in the life of the nation. Following this, there is a brief and concise contribution on the problems involved in Transitional Justice, as well as the methodological solutions that are presented, as well as the main theoretical approaches to address its study. The way is then clear to expose the topic regarding transitional justice in our country today. In this way, the necessary issues to conclude will be exposed: Transitional justice is located between those who fight against it based on an ideological conception and, on the other side, those who adopt it as a means to implement or consolidate an ideological project of longer range. Transitional justice becomes a tool to generate a connection between justice and peace, generating equality between victims and perpetrators and forming scenarios of compensation and social reconciliation.

Gender and citizenship in transitional justice: everyday experiences of reparation and reintegration in Colombia Gender and citizenship in transitional justice: everyday experiences of reparation and reintegration in Colombia , by Sanne Weber, Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2023, 248 pp., GBP 80.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-1529234121

Gender and citizenship in transitional justice: everyday experiences of reparation and reintegration in Colombia <b>Gender and citizenship in transitional justice: everyday experiences of reparation and reintegration in Colombia</b> , by Sanne Weber, Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2023, 248 pp., GBP 80.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-1529234121

The Case for Rage in Transitional Justice: Lessons from the Anti-Racist Struggle

ABSTRACT Transitional justice theorizing has the tendency to smuggle in an over-reliance on dualities: one’s resentment can give rise to either vengeance or forgiveness, but not both; one can either be fueled by anger or by the hope of progress, but not both; and so on. This dualistic way of thinking replicates the kinds of false dichotomies that hamstring other societal movements, among them the struggle against racism. Drawing on Myisha Cherry’s case for so-called ‘Lordean rage’ within the context of the anti-racist movement, I make the case that transitional justice in general would be well-served by centering the transformative power of emotion (even and especially when that emotion defies oversimplified and strict categorization).

Disappointment’s Magic: Negative Emotions, Transitional Justice and Resistance

This article explores how an existential account of emotions can enrich debates about negative emotions in transitional justice and peacebuilding scholarship. A growing literature has examined the challenge that the ex-resisters’ negative emotions, including disappointment, pose to the creation of sustainable peace in post-conflict societies. It has however not sufficiently accounted for disappointment’s potentially productive political value. The paper fills this gap by examining how the ex-resisters’ disappointment affects their capacity for political action against the remainders of past violence and oppression, with a specific focus on the South African context. I draw on Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential account of the emotions’ ‘magic’ as a way of coping with the complexities of political action arising from our situated condition. I put Sartre’s account in conversation with Nadine Gordimer’s novel No Time Like the Present and experiences of disappointment among South African ex-resisters to show how disappointment can lead ex-resisters to different ways of confronting the complexity of political engagement in the wake of the incomplete transition. This dialogue reveals disappointment as a powerful source of resistance against the persistence of injustice, while also disclosing significant constraints upon political engagement in conditions of systemic violence. Le magique de la déception : Émotions négatives, justice transitionnelle et résistance

How Germany is phasing out lignite: insights from the Coal Commission and local communities

BackgroundThis article asks the following question: how well are coal regions, affected by phase-out plans, represented in mediating commissions, to what extent do local communities participate in the decision-making process and how are the political negotiations perceived by the communities? We look at the case of the German lignite phase-out from a procedural justice perspective. Informed by literature on sociotechnical decline and procedural justice in energy transitions, we focus first on aspects of representation, participation and recognition within the German Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment (“Coal Commission”). Second, we analyze how to exnovate coal in two regions closely tied to the coal- and lignite-based energy history in Germany: Lusatia and the Rhenish Mining District.ResultsBased on interview series in both regions, we connect insights from local communities with strategies for structural change and participation programs in the regions. We find significant differences between the two regions, which is primarily an effect of the challenging historical experiences in Lusatia. Participation within existing arrangements is not sufficient to solve these problems; they require a comprehensive strategy for the future of the regions.ConclusionsWe conclude that the first phase-out process was a lost opportunity to initiate a community-inclusive sustainable transition process. As the phase-out process is not yet concluded, additional efforts and new strategies are needed to resolve the wicked problem of lignite phase-out.

Addressing the Legacy of Colonization in the Aftermath of the Armed Conflict: What Role for Transitional Justice

Addressing the Legacy of Colonization in the Aftermath of the Armed Conflict: What Role for Transitional Justice

Transitional Justice Status in Albania Through Local Perceptions

This research article aims to enhance regional studies with a focus on the Balkan peninsula, by providing a comprehensive analysis of the extent of transitional justice mechanisms in Albania and its local perception among the citizens. With the fall of military dictatorships in Latin America in 1980s, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new states in 1990s, the concept of Transitional Justice (TJ) saw a significant rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was further propelled by the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the prolonged breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992) as well as the fall of the communist dictatorship in Albania (1990). The emergence of new states and the state-building processes that followed the political and social changes also brought new challenges and conflicts, although they marked the end of significantly repressive political regimes. Considering that the implementation of TJ has undergone several changes over time and dependent of the different settings in which it was employed, it is necessary to conduct extensive research to determine the extent to which TJ differs in post-communist and post-conflict nations. The main research question of this article is: How is reflected the current status of transitional justice in Albania in the lens of public perceptions? To achieve the goal, this article employs quantitative data through a survey conducted with 1021 respondents in Albania. The results of the study show that there are significant differences between the responses of participants who reported having knowledge of Transitional Justice and those who reported being unaware, particularly with their understanding of the number of victims affected. p-value &lt;0.05.&#x0D; &#x0D; Received: 6 September 2023 / Accepted: 29 November 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024

A ‘New Gambia’? Managing political crisis and change in an African small state

ABSTRACT The Gambia has experienced three significant political crises in its history: the attempted coup of 1981, the successful coup of 1994, and the latest events in 2016–2017 when President Yahya Jammeh, having exercised semi-authoritarian power since 1994, was defeated at the ballot box but refused to step down until he was finally forced to do so. Using academic, media, social media and interview material, this article examines all three processes and their aftermaths, in particular the latter, through the lens of ‘small state’ politics. The article demonstrates that the small size of the population, elite, and landmass indeed matters in driving Gambian political processes. In 2023, several post-2017 processes, including constitutional change, transitional justice and elections, are playing out within the confines of the small state. This article then assesses to what extent a ‘New Gambia’, to use current President Adama Barrow's phrase, has emerged.

Repotting Transitional Justice

The field of transitional justice—concerned as it is with the mechanisms of recovery from societal conflict and mass violence—has long found its de facto home in legal theory. While this is in many respects a natural pairing, I argue that just as transitional justice has expanded in scope from the regime-change paradigm to general situations of human rights violations, so too should our conception of it expand from the purely legalistic to the more explicitly ethical. This paper makes the case that while transitional justice remains undertheorized along ethical dimensions, increased attention to both the ethical underpinnings of justice interventions and the ability of ethical work to center the individual experience might go a great distance towards addressing what Pablo de Greiff has identified as three of the chief challenges facing transitional justice today: insufficient attention to context, formulism, and technocratic tendencies.

Transitional Justice at 40

Transitional justice, a movement devoted to bringing accountability to departed political regimes, has been the engine of the international human rights community in the past four decades. But while much has been said about how transitional justice enables successful democratic transitions, some of the movement’s legacy is more checkered—from endangering such transitions to rekindling old feuds and undermining the rule of law. Acknowledging this seldom discussed darker side of transitional justice is not an argument against holding an old regime to account for its actions, but rather a recognition of the limits of what justice can do to advance democratization.

Trying Perpetrators: Denazification Trials and Support for Democracy in West Germany

We study the effects of transitional justice (TJ) programs that punish large numbers of human rights violators through the lenses of social psychology theories on how individuals respond to punishment in allocative situations, including how defendants in court trials evaluate their verdicts. We analyze subnational variation in procedures and outcomes of denazification trials in West Germany during 1946-1947. Consistently with established findings in social psychology, we find that procedural justice and the distributive fairness of outcomes can compensate for the anti-democratic attitudinal effects of being a defendant in a TJ trial. We also find evidence that procedural justice influences the democratic attitudes of family members of TJ defendants. The study has implications for contemporary cases of TJ programs that affect large numbers of perpetrators.

Transitional Justice as an Efficient Mechanism for Overcoming the Consequences of Armed Conflicts: World Experience

Transitional Justice as an Efficient Mechanism for Overcoming the Consequences of Armed Conflicts: World Experience