The pressures of getting it right: Expertise and victims’ voices in the work of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 300-319
Author(s):  
Anne Menzel
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract∞ This article contributes to scholarship on power, agency and ownership in professional transitional justice. It explores and details the relationship between ‘professional’ agency arising from recognized expertise and ‘unprofessional’ voices relaying lived experiences, concerns and needs. I approach this relationship via a microperspective on the work of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2002-2004), specifically its work on women and sexual violence, which the commission was mandated to pay special attention to. Based on interviews and rich archival materials, I show how this work was driven by the notion that there was a right way of dealing with women and sexual violence. To avoid mistakes, commissioners and staff members demanded and relied on recognized expertise. This led to a marginalization of victims’ voices. I argue that, to some degree at least, such marginalization belongs to professional transitional justice and will persist despite improved victim participation.

scholarly journals Victim Participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Challenges to the Civil Party Framework and Lessons for the Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Laura Neale
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
East Timor ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

<p>This paper examines the victim participation framework at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), established to deal with crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime. The background which has led to the creation of the ECCC will be explained, before the paper will look at the way the Court is structured to include civil parties. The Court has consistently limited the civil parties’ role since its establishment and these limitations and the justifications are outlined in the paper. Solutions in the context of the ECCC are then considered, although due to the political environment, no changes in favour of victim rights are likely. Future models are considered, with the benefits of a Truth and Conciliation Commission’s analysed by looking at Sierra Leone and East Timor, as examples of successful frameworks where both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceeded simultaneously. This paper concludes that although every situation requiring a judicial response will be different, the option of having both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fulfil multiple victim needs.</p>

scholarly journals What about men? Towards a critical interrogation of sexual violence against men in global politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 1271-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Drumond
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract In recent years, debates around sexual violence against men (SVAM) started to gain momentum in policy and research. Yet, the conceptualization and empirical identification of SVAM became a matter of political contestation, with incidents often being depicted through de-sexualized labels such as ‘inhumane acts’ and ‘cruel treatment’. The fluidity of sexual meanings surrounding these episodes highlights the intricate relationship between ‘sex’ and ‘violence’: Do we always already know what sexual violence is? What does the language of sexual violence obscure, flatten and trivialize? This contribution draws on Marysia Zalewski's interventions to interrogate concepts and framings commonly used to ‘read’ episodes of sexual violence against men. In particular, it follows Zalewski and Runyan's efforts to ‘unthink’ what we ‘know’ and how we ‘know’ sexual violence against men in global politics, while interrogating the relationship between sex and violence in particular performances of bodily violence. The analysis draws on extensive archival research conducted in the files of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Surveyed documents include records and proceedings, such as trial transcripts and statements of victims and witnesses involved in incidents of violence against men during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia and Peru.

scholarly journals Victim Participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Challenges to the Civil Party Framework and Lessons for the Future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Laura Neale
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
East Timor ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
Khmer Rouge Regime

<p>This paper examines the victim participation framework at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC or Court), established to deal with crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime. The background which has led to the creation of the ECCC will be explained, before the paper will look at the way the Court is structured to include civil parties. The Court has consistently limited the civil parties’ role since its establishment and these limitations and the justifications are outlined in the paper. Solutions in the context of the ECCC are then considered, although due to the political environment, no changes in favour of victim rights are likely. Future models are considered, with the benefits of a Truth and Conciliation Commission’s analysed by looking at Sierra Leone and East Timor, as examples of successful frameworks where both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission proceeded simultaneously. This paper concludes that although every situation requiring a judicial response will be different, the option of having both a Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission can fulfil multiple victim needs.</p>

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