TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

____________________A NEW DISCIPLINE OF

HUMAN RIGHTS ______________________________

Kora Andrieu2010

Hasmik ManukyanC.I.F.E M.A.E.I.S Anglophone Branch

- 2013-

WHAT IS TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE ?

O Transitional justice is a response to systematic or widespread violations of human rights.

O It seeks recognition for victims and promotion of possibilities for peace, reconciliation and democracy.

O Transitional justice is not a special form of justice but justice adapted to societies transforming themselves after a period of pervasive human rights abuse.

O In some cases these transformations happen suddenly, in others they may take place over many decades.

TJ Historical BackgroundO Transitional Justice (TJ) is as an approach

emerged late 1980s and early 1990s.O In response to political changes in Latin

America and Eastern Europe – to demands in this regions for justice.

O At the time human rights activists wanted to address systematic abuses by former regimes without endangering political transformations.

O Since these changes were called “transitions to democracy”, people named this new multidisciplinary field “transitional justice”.

Quotes about TJO “Transitional justice should be designed to strengthen democracy and peace – the key goals of societies picking up the pieces after periods of mass abuse”.

O “Within this diversity of experience, though, the trend has been toward seeking some kind of closure. More than 20 nations in the last two dozen years have tried the institutionalized search for ''truth and reconciliation,'' giving rise to the new academic discipline of ''transitional justice,'' with its lexicon of ''retributive justice,'' ''restorative justice,'' ''historical clarification,'' ''lustration'' and so on.”

O Kimberley Theidon call it “TJ industry, composed of teams of experts, consultants, software packages or data management, and a set of assumptions on how to do memory and why memory matters.”

BASIC APPROACHES TO TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE

OCriminal prosecutionsOTruth commissionsOReparations programsOGender JusticeOSecurity system reformOMemorialization efforts

Criminal ProsecutionsOThese are judicial investigations

of those responsible for human rights violations.

OProsecutors frequently emphasize investigations of the “big fish”: suspects considered most responsible for massive or systematic crimes.

Truth Commissions

OThese commissions of inquiry have the primary purposes of investigating and reporting on key periods of recent abuse.

OThey are often official state bodies that make recommendations to remedy such abuse and to prevent its recurrence.

Reparations ProgramsOThese are state-sponsored initiatives

that help repair the material and moral damages of past abuse.

OThey typically distribute a mix of material and symbolic benefits to victims.

O Benefits that may include financial compensation and official apologies.

OInstrument of reparation claims is not criminal but civil law.

Gender Justice

OThese efforts challenge impunity for sexual and gender-based violence.

OEnsure women’s equal access to redress of human rights violations.

Security System Reform

OThese efforts seek to transform the military, police, judiciary and related state institutions from instruments of repression and corruption into instruments of public service and integrity.

Memorialization Efforts

OThese include museums and memorials that preserve public memory of victims and raise moral consciousness about past abuse, in order to prevent its recurrence.

Which are the goals of TJ?

O Transformation or the regeneration of a whole society.

It involves political, economic, cultural, sociological and psychological actions: - Prosecutions- Truth / Reconciliation commissions- Lustration- Public access to police & government records- Public apology- Public memorials- Reburial of victims- Compensations, reparations- Literary and historical writings

"Three R's" of Transitional Justice

OReconstruction

ORepair

OReconciliation

Kora Andrieu distinguishes three main categories of action for TJO (i) legal justice - refers to security and

judicial system reform.O (ii) restorative justice - refers to

restoring the truth about the past, to forgiveness, reconciliation and collective memory in rebuilding societies.

O (iii) social justice - refers to promotion of social trust, reparations, social integration and structural social reforms.

Legal justice

O The historical background of Trials: - Nuremberg Trails (1945-1949) - “the re-founding

of a political and moral community through the narration of past horrors. (Simpson, 2008).

- Tokyo military tribunal – “little more than a sword in a judge’s wig” (Radhabinod Pal, 2011).

O Ad hoc tribunals and International Criminal Court:

- UN decision to create International Criminal tribunals for ex-Yugoslavia (ICTY, 1993), and Rwanda(ICTR, 1995).

- International Criminal Court (ICC, 2002) – main role is to gather evidence and lead investigations in war zones

Legal justice (II)O Hybrid courts :- Hybrid or “internationalized” courts – a mix of

domestic and international instruments of justice. (established in Bosnia. Kosovo, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Cambodia, Iraq, Lebanon).

- Truth Commissions – often official state bodies that make recommendations to remedy recent abuse and prevent its recurrence.

O Local justice:- “based on local structures with local actors, TJ can be more conducive to empowering people and building capacities for both peace & justice” (Shaw, 2007).

Restorative justiceO “A normative theory of social repair, focuses

less on perpetrators to the benefit of victims, shifts justice back to the affected communities.(Braithwaite, 1999).

O “The aim of RJ is therefore to democratize the social control of punishment, by making its methods more consensual & participatory”. (Dzur, 2003).

O Its application to mass atrocities in post-conflict situations, mainly through Truth & Reconciliation Commissions (TRC). (Hayner, 1994).

O TRCs can make recommendations for broad reform of state institutions based on their findings, and suggest reparations for the victims.

Two kinds of TRC can be distinguished

O(i) participatory model (South African) – fostering reconciliation by public dialogue and collective acknowledgement.

O (ii) other TRCs are constructed more as educational fact-finding bodies – with the explicit aim of encouraging historical interpretation and disseminating a new collective memory. (TRCs in El Salvador, East Germany and Guatemala).

Social justiceO Reparation programsO Material reparations – meant to put an end to an

unjust situation through the allocation of a monetary equivalent that is supposed to compensate for it.

O As opposed to restorative justice reparation policies are said to be morally neutral.

O Other types of compensation could include restitution of lost property, the building of memorials, the naming of streets after victims, the revision of history books.

O Official apologies too are sometimes included in the reparative paradigm.

O Limits – no money can be put on people’s suffering. Timing of reparation. Collective responsibility for crimes

Transitional justice initiatives are mostly implemented by:

O NGOs O Local and regional organizations

O UN programsO International institutions O International Criminal CourtO World Bank and so on

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICEreconstructing self & societyhttp://tj.facinghistory.org/

Case studies

O GermanyO Northern IrelandO RwandaO South Africa

Oxford Transitional Justice Research http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/otjr.php

OOxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) is an inter-disciplinary network of more than 150 Oxford staff and students working broadly on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and/or repressive rule.

OFounded in 2007, it is now one of the largest and most diverse academic communities conducting research in this field.

International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)

ICTJ assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass

atrocity or human rights abuse.www.ictj.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHeecxifBvs

Why Transitional JusticeO http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYpJxwc6Jo

Peace and JusticeO http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWFpngEfu84

The Case for JusticeO http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature

=player_embedded&v=2fm1GmDwOqo

ICTJJustice, Truth, Dignity

NO ACCOUNTABILITY

NO DIGNITY

TJ & Graffiti in Libyahttp://justiceinconflict.org/2011/12/12/transitional-justice-and-graffiti-in-libya/

PEACE & LOVE

Home & Security

WE DESTROY PEACE

BORDERS

JUSTICE, TRUTH & DIGNITY

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE