scholarly journals ‘Does the truth pass across the fire without burning?’ Locating the short circuit in Rwanda's Gacaca courts

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Ingelaere
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Different Levels

ABSTRACTThe modernised tradition of the Gacaca courts has become the key mechanism for dealing with the past in Rwanda. The process needs to establish accountability for all acts of genocide and to foster reconciliation. Nevertheless, popular narratives and survey results reveal that a widespread ‘crisis’ accompanied the initial stages of the Gacaca process. We argue that a problematic quest for the truth is short-circuiting reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda. Truth-telling is the cornerstone of the transitional justice framework due to the design of the Gacaca tribunals. On the basis of twenty months of fieldwork in Rwandan villages, we locate tensions at different levels. The Gacaca system is a distinctively modern phenomenon despite its traditional appearance. The state-sanctioned speaking of the truth according to a prosecutorial logic runs counter to the core values of the customary institution and established societal practices. This friction is further enhanced by the underlying Judeo-Christian model of truth-telling introduced with the Gacaca system in a socio-political environment mediated by a culture of deceit and dominated by a war victor. In such a socio-cultural context, communication serves the interests of the power holders (national and local), and not necessarily the interest of truth-telling and justice.

scholarly journals Finding a Voice: Silence and its Significance for Transitional Justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
Being And Becoming

On the surface at least, silence appears to have no obvious or legitimate place within transitional justice. The latter is about voice and about truth-telling, about creating a factual record of what happened. The core aim of the article, however, is to demonstrate that silence is highly relevant to transitional justice. To develop this argument, it explores two possible and interrelated functions of silence – as a form of resistance and as a survival strategy. Conceptualizing silence as a form of absence, and emphasizing a dialectical relationship between silence as being and becoming, the article underlines the transformative possibilities of silence and their significance for transitional justice. In particular, silence can aid in the development of more agentic and contextually sensitive ways of dealing with the past. A major challenge for transitional justice, thus, is to find ways of allowing silence to ‘speak’.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice in the Middle East and North Africa – Taking Account of Islam

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakeem O. Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Islamic Values

AbstractThe core of the argument of this article is that the integration of Islamic notions of justice into transitional justice mechanisms in the MENA makes for a more viable and sustainable transitional justice process in the region. This would mean a critical cultural value in the MENA is given a place in dealing with the past and mapping out a sustainable future in the region. The argument here is premised on the logic that a social transformation-focused enterprise like transitional justice ought to engage with Islam for sustainable outcomes in societies in the MENA where Islam is very influential. Given the significant role and influence of Islam on cultural, socio-political and legal institutions in the MENA, a process of transitional justice that takes account of Islamic values and practices is important for negotiating justice and institutionalising reforms in societies in the region.

Memory and Politics in Democratic Spain

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Omar G. Encarnación
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Right

This chapter explains the persistence of Spain’s ‘politics of forgetting’, a phenomenon revealed by the wilful intent to disremember the political memory of the violence of the Spanish Civil War and the human rights abuses of General Franco’s authoritarian regime. Looking beyond the traumas of the Civil War, the limits on transitional justice and truth-telling on the Franco regime imposed by a transition to democracy anchored on intra-elite pacts, and the conciliatory and forward-looking political culture that consolidated in the new democracy, this analysis emphasizes a decidedly less obvious explanation: the political uses of forgetting. Special attention is paid to how the absence of a reckoning with the past, protected politicians from both the right and the left from embarrassing and inconvenient political histories; facilitated the reinvention of the major political parties as democratic institutions; and lessened societal fears about repeating past historical mistakes. The conclusion of the chapter explains how the success of the current democratic regime, shifting public opinion about the past occasioned by greater awareness about the dark policies and legacies of the Franco regime, and generational change among Spain’s political class have in recent years diminished the political uses of forgetting. This, in turn, has allowed for a more honest treatment of the past in Spain’s public policies.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huma Haider
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Meaningful Change ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Alternative Sites ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

Countries in the Western Balkans have engaged in various transitional justice and reconciliation initiatives to address the legacy of the wars of the 1990s and the deep political and societal divisions that persist. There is growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that in order to foster meaningful change, transitional justice must extend beyond trials (the dominant international mechanism in the region) and be more firmly anchored in affected communities with alternative sites, safe spaces, and modes of engagement. This rapid literature review presents a sample of initiatives, spanning a range of sectors and fields – truth-telling, art and culture, memorialisation, dialogue and education – that have achieved a level of success in contributing to processes of reconciliation, most frequently at the community level. It draws primarily from recent studies, published in the past five years. Much of the literature available centres on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with some examples also drawn from Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

scholarly journals Transitional Justice in South Africa and Brazil: Introducing a Gendered Approach to Reconciliation

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-107
Author(s):  
G. Nelaeva ◽  
N. Sidorova
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
General Question ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Formal Procedure ◽  
Post War

The concept of transitional justice has been associated with the periods of political change when a country emerges from a war or turmoil and attempts to address the wrongdoings of the past. Among various instruments of transitional justice, truth commissions stand out as an example of a non-judicial form of addressing the crimes of the past. While their setup and operation can be criticized on different grounds, including excessive politization of hearings and the virtual impossibility of meaningfully assessing their impact, it has been widely acknowledged in the literature that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa can be regarded as a success story due to its relatively strong mandate and widespread coverage and resonance it had in South African society. We would like to compare this commission from the 1990s with a more recent example, the Brazilian National Truth Commission, so as to be able to address the question of incorporation of gendered aspects in transitional justice (including examination of sexual violence cases, representation of women in truth-telling bodies, etc.), since gender often remains an overlooked and silenced aspect in such initiatives. Gendered narratives of transitional justice often do not fit into the wider narratives of post-war reconciliation. A more general question addressed in this research is whether the lack of formal procedure in truth commissions facilitates or hinders examination of sexual crimes in transitional settings.

Collaboration, Complicity, and Historical Memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. Horne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Secret Police ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shed Light

The widespread complicity evident in the post-communist cases complicates approaches to transitional justice because it lays some of the blame on society. Lustration procedures use information in secret police files to shed light on the past. Those files contain information documenting how neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even relatives might have informed on you. There is a potential for such revelations about the scope of the interpersonal and institutional betrayals to undermine social trust and civil society. This chapter explores the problems associated with complicity and transitional justice measures by examining the cases of Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. The cases highlight how historical memory is affected by negative revelations about the past. These cases illustrate how rising nostalgia can collide with truth telling, forcing the reconsideration and sometimes revision of historical memory.

In Pursuit of Policies of ‘Reconciliation’ from an Intransigent State: An Exercise in Folly?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari Eppel
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
State Violence ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Past ◽  
Power Base ◽  
History Of ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Peace And Reconciliation

Zimbabwe has had only one real transition of power, at independence in 1980. Since then, Zimbabwe has had a long history of (selectively) drawing lines through the past and of extreme political intolerance. The ruling party ZANU-PF has acted ruthlessly against any political opposition—first in the 1980s, when many thousands of civilians in the west of the country were massacred during the deployment of a special brigade, targeted at the support base of ZAPU, then the dominant political party in that region. Systematic repression and torture in this region led to the first semi-transition in 1987, with the Unity Accord. The uneasy peace was broken again in 2000, with the rise of the MDC, and once more violence was unleashed to ensure ZANU-PF retained its increasingly militarized power base. A government of national unity and a coup marked further semi-transitions. These multiple eras of state violence and semi-transitions have all been accompanied by calls for initiatives to promote ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ as well as justice but official truth telling has proved elusive. However, the semi-transition resulting from the coup of November 2017 may have shifted the space to talk about the past: the constitutionally mandated National Peace and Reconciliation Commission finally achieved legislative backing in 2018, and may offer opportunities for transitional justice initiatives. Importantly, the underlying structural causes of violence and repression, dating back to colonial times, need to be addressed. Truth telling alone will not ensure a more tolerant future.

Beyond the Family Resemblance: Mapping the Normative Roles of Journalists Across Europe in the Early 2010s

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122199409
Author(s):  
Olivier Standaert
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Family Resemblance ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Vision

This article describes and discusses how normative journalistic roles are formulated across Europe. The material was obtained from the 2012–2016 wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study, a comparative study designed to assess the state of journalism throughout the world. The advantage of this study over similar undertakings in the past is that we did not confront journalists with ready-made statements but invited them to tell us, in their own words, what they thought the major roles of journalists in their countries ought to be. Open responses of more than 10,200 journalists from twenty-seven European countries yielded 12,860 references. Results show that the most important roles refer to the domain of political life, especially the informational-instructive and the critical-monitorial functions—a finding that is consistent across the twenty-seven countries investigated. Beyond this shared global vision, it is, however, possible to point out some national specificities, keeping in mind that even if the core of the normative roles remains somewhat universal, a detailed comparison of those roles in their cultural context allows us to grasp some differences in their hierarchy and their meaning.

What Academics Really Want

2019 ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Jason Brennan ◽  
Phillip Magness
Keyword(s):  
Core Values ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
The Core ◽  
The University

This chapter discusses the basic incentives that faculty, students, and administrators face, especially at so-called R1 (doctoral-granting with the highest research activity) universities. Different people have somewhat different motivations. Some are more driven by fame and prestige, some by money, some by intellectual curiosity, some by love, and others by a desire to push their ideology. Different institutions also structure their incentives somewhat differently. The university is a political environment where different groups and individuals compete for power and resources. Thus, it is not that the university is full of gremlins or beset by poltergeists, but that individual professors, students, and administrators face incentives that put them in conflict with the core values of the university.

scholarly journals Law and Islam in the Middle East

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-272
Author(s):  
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Symbol ◽  
The Impact

This is a collection of anthropological studies on the dynamics of the implementationoflaw in the Middle East. The basic arguments of the book raisethe issue of the context of law and the role of Islamic law in the Middle East.The editor, Daisy Dwyer, contends that context rather than the letter of the lawis the core phenomenon determining the handling and outcome of legal cases.The form and impact of Islamic law varies according to the specific regionaland cultural context . Dwyer also argues that Islamic law is often invoked notso much for its specific content but as a political symbol relating the past tothe present and, ultimately, the future.These points are significant for understanding the impact of Islamic lawin the Middle East. The cultural context will consistently influence which proBookvisions of the law are emphasized and which provisions are deemphasized orconveniently forgotten. Furthermore, social outlooks and cultural habits willin turn impact upon huw the specific provisions are interpreted and implemented.As Safia Mohsen demonstmtes in an insightful article on mmen and the criminaljustice system in Egypt, the implementation of law responds to the specific situationof women in Egypt. The way criminal law is implemented sometimesdiscriminates, depending on the context, in favor of or against women ...

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