More than Words: Restorative Justice Concepts in Transitional Justice Settings

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Clamp ◽  
Jonathan Doak
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Practical Operation ◽  
Wide Range

This article considers the applicability of restorative justice literature in the transitional justice arena. The authors argue that while restorative justice is applied to a wide range of conflicts, the established literature is often of limited value within a transitional context. Insufficient attention is often paid to the inherent difficulties in importing theories, concepts and practices designed for the context of ‘settled’ societies into post-conflict environments. Significantly more consideration needs to be given to the practical operation of transitional justice mechanisms, as well as their underlying normative bases, so that they might live up to the claims of many commentators that transitional justice is ‘restorative’.

scholarly journals Mirroring transitional justice. Construction and impact of European Union ICTY-conditionality

Südosteuropa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niké Wentholt
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
War Experiences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe European Union (EU) developed a state-building strategy for the aspiring member states in the Western Balkans. Demanding full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the EU made transitional justice part of the accession demands. Scholars have recently criticized the EU’s limited focus on retributive justice as opposed to restorative justice. This paper goes beyond such impact-orientated analyses by asking why the EU engaged with retributive transitional justice in the first place. The EU constructed ICTY-conditionality by mirroring its own post-Second World War experiences to the envisioned post-conflict trajectory of the Western Balkans. The EU therefore expected the court to contribute to reconciliation, democratization and the rule of law. Using Serbia as a case study, this article examines the conditionality’s context, specificities and discursive claims. Finally, it relates these findings to the agenda of a promising regional initiative prioritizing restorative justice (RECOM) and sheds new light on the impact of ICTY-conditionality on transitional justice in the Western Balkans.

scholarly journals 17. Criminology and transitional justice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kieran McEvoy ◽  
Ron Dudai ◽  
Cheryl Lawther
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the intersection between criminology and transitional justice. The chapter begins with a critical discussion on the utility of criminological scholarship from settled democracies to the exceptional circumstances of post-conflict or post-authoritarian societies. It then explores a range of debates related to the punishment of offenders in such contexts including the role of prosecutions, amnesties, the reintegration of former combatants, and the role of restorative justice. The chapter next considers the social and political construction of victimhood in transitional contexts including competing notions of the ‘idealized’ victim. The relationship between transitional justice and social control is then examined including the importance of countering denial, the relationship between deviance and memory and the particular contribution of efforts ‘from below’ to counter elites-level narratives on past abuses. The chapter concludes that a criminology of transitional justice provides the basis for revisiting some of the foundational questions on responding to crime and justice in the most challenging of settings—a sobering but intellectually rich research agenda for years to come.

Promoting Peace in the Middle-East Through the Field of Transitional Justice

2019 ◽  
pp. 344-371
Author(s):  
Jeremie M. Bracka
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
Justice Model

This chapter examines the role and potential contribution of transitional justice to promoting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From the experience of many post-conflict societies, it has now become prevailing wisdom that meaningful peace, requires due regard for justice and a carefully conceived process to re-establish the rule of law and accountability for human rights abuse. Nevertheless, such considerations have been all but absent in political peace efforts in the Middle East. Accordingly, this chapter highlights the unique goals of the transitional justice model, and its capacity to apply a retrospective and restorative approach to peace building. By attaching transitional justice to intractable issues like the Palestinian right of return, the refugees, and the historical record, negotiators could draw on a restorative justice model to defeat the present stalemate. It proposes an unofficial bi-national Israeli-Palestinian truth commission (IPTC) to play a pivotal role in reshaping collective memory and supporting the viability of any future political agreement.

scholarly journals Memory in the Aftermath of War: Australian Responses to the Vietnamese Refugee Crisis of 1975

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (02) ◽  
pp. 183-201
Author(s):  
Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Vietnamese Refugees ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Past Injustice ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Archival Documentation ◽  
National Archives Of Australia ◽  
Vietnamese Refugee

Abstract This article interweaves the personal and archival by exploring the intersection of official Australian records on the fall of Saigon and government handling of Vietnamese refugees in 1975 with my family history. As transitional justice addresses the legacies of human rights violations including the displacement and resettlement of refugees in post-conflict contexts, Australian responses to the Vietnamese refugee crisis of 1975 provide a relevant case study. Drawing on a wide range of archival documentation at the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia, including policy papers, Senate findings, confidential cables, ministerial submissions, private correspondence and photographs, I trace the effect of government decisions on Vietnamese refugees seeking asylum. In the process I reveal actions by senior bureaucrats and in particular by then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam that are largely unknown. Combining archival research with personal history enables me to not only shed light on past actions of governance and uncover past injustice but also explore the enduring impact of government decision-making on individual lives.

scholarly journals (En)gendering post-conflict agency: Women’s experiences of the ‘local’ in Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
pp. 001083672110007
Author(s):  
Laura S Martin
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
International Programs ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
Sierra Leonean ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Gendered Power

This article explores how female agency and experience manifest in a local Sierra Leonean peacebuilding program known as Fambul Tok. While post-conflict literature, namely transitional justice and peacebuilding, has become more critical in recent years, there is still a tendency to generalize both the ‘local’ and ‘women’. There is, however, much greater scope to delineate how local programs shape and are shaped by women in these settings. While Fambul Tok was, at least theoretically, meant to better align with the needs and priorities of Sierra Leoneans, including women, the empirics suggest that female engagement ultimately results in a wide range of outcomes, which are not necessarily more ‘empowering’, ‘transformative’ or ‘good’ than international programs. Drawing on original empirical data from Fambul Tok, this article highlights the complexity of gendered power relations within these programs and how individual women have multiple, diverse and contested forms of agency and experiences within local settings.

The Role of Non- and Quasi-Judicial Accountability Mechanisms in Addressing a Wide Range of Needs of Victims of Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War

2019 ◽  
pp. 197-268
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Wide Range

This chapter turns to the potential contribution of quasi- or non-judicial post-conflict justice processes in complementing international criminal justice for addressing the needs of victims of conflict-related sexual violence. Drawing on insights from the previous chapters, it first analyses how effective redress for victims of sexual violence in post-conflict settings should be conceived in light of the complexity of the victims' experiences and the legacy of these crimes in communities. The discussion emphasises the potential transformative effects of truth-seeking processes and other community-based transitional justice measures on the often challenging social dimension of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The author argues, however, that whilst it is necessary to integrate these crimes into domestic transitional justice processes, this should be done alongside embedding appropriate measures to facilitate the participation of victims without running the risk of being exposed to further harm.

scholarly journals Restoring justice in Serbia: Reconciliation and restorative justice in a post-war context

Temida ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Parmentier ◽  
Marta Valiñas ◽  
Elmar Weitekamp
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Research Team ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Population Based ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Post War ◽  
Political Economic

The debate on how to deal with the past in Serbia is an ongoing one. Both the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia and national criminal justice mechanisms have played an important role in prosecuting offenders. Other transitional justice approaches continue to be discussed. All in all, the Yugoslav and the Serbian cases are similar to other debates about 'dealing with the past' or 'transitional justice', as they are taking place between elites, political, economic, and within civil society, both in the country concerned and at the international level. Likewise the views and expectations of the local populations in any given country are very rarely taken into account. In this paper findings of a population-based research carried out by our research team in Serbia in 2007 are presented. The research was done by means of a quantitative survey across the country on several issues of post-conflict justice, including truth seeking, accountability, reparation for victims and reconciliation.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights under the 2010 Constitutional Dispensation

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-226
Author(s):  
Bonolo Ramadi Dinokopila ◽  
Rhoda Igweta Murangiri
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
National Commission ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
National Human ◽  
The Status ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

This article examines the transformation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and discusses the implications of such transformation on the promotion and protection of human rights in Kenya. The article is an exposition of the powers of the Commission and their importance to the realisation of the Bill of Rights under the 2010 Kenyan Constitution. This is done from a normative and institutional perspective with particular emphasis on the extent to which the UN Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles, 1993) have been complied with. The article highlights the role of national human rights commissions in transformative and/or transitional justice in post-conflict Kenya. It also explores the possible complementary relationship(s) between the KNCHR and other Article 59 Commissions for the better enforcement of the bill of rights.

The Right to Bodily Integrity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Brysk
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Global Pattern ◽  
Popular Resistance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Right

In Chapter 7, we profile the global pattern of sexual violence. We will consider conflict rape and transitional justice response in Peru and Colombia, along with the plight of women displaced by conflict from Syria and Central America, and limited international policy response. State-sponsored sexual violence and popular resistance to reclaim public space will be chronicled in Egypt as well as Mexico. We will track intensifying public sexual assault amid social crisis in Turkey, South Africa, and India, which has been met by a wide range of public protest, legal reform, and policy change. For a contrasting experience of the privatization of sexual assault in developed democracies, we will trace campus, workplace, and military rape in the United States.

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