There are many templates for achieving transitional justice, the broader purpose of which is to help a society reckon with a legacy of human rights abuses in the aftermath of dictatorship or conflict. These efforts might take the form of a criminal trial, a truth commission or a reparations program, in an effort to document horrific violations—and reckon with them.
The specific goals of transitional justice have evolved over time. Early initiatives emphasized criminal justice, with the most well-known example being the post-World War II trials of German and Japanese war criminals. More recently, however, the purpose of transitional justice began to expand to focus on reconciliation, healing and societal reformation. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission prized information and resolution over justice, for instance.
The threat of a transitional justice mechanism can also present a stumbling block to peace negotiations, though, particularly when people who might be held accountable by such processes are asked to help establish them. In South Sudan’s civil war, all sides have shied away from the creation of a hybrid court that would potentially be tasked with delivering justice to the victims of abuses committed by the government and rebel militias. Their reluctance to participate may ultimately lead them to sink that country’s peace process, which has recently made halting but fragile progress.
There is also the broader problem of sustaining these efforts in the face of the temptation to leave painful experiences in the past, as well as opposition from participants in past human rights abuses and their sympathizers—something that is now happening in Brazil with regard to that country’s Cold War-era dictatorship. All of these challenges are compounded by the lingering question of who will pay for transitional justice mechanisms that may require years to complete their work.
WPR has covered transitional justice around the world in detail and continues to examine key questions about future developments. Will the push for transitional justice in Latin America be undermined by the recent wave of right-wing election victories? Will highly touted initiatives in the Central African Republic and the Gambia actually move forward? Will the International Criminal Court survive? Below are some of the highlights of WPR’s coverage.
Our Most Recent Coverage
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The ICC and Its Discontents
Understanding that every country is not going to be in a position to reckon with human rights abuses—particularly when the people committing those abuses cling to power—the global community created the International Criminal Court. The ICC is designed to provide an alternative outlet for victims seeking justice, but also for securing reparations for the crimes committed against them. But the ICC is currently under fire from skeptics in Africa, who object to the court’s so-far exclusive focus on African defendants, as well as officials in the Trump administration who see it as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
- How the ICC could play a central role in Afghanistan’s peace process, in An ICC Investigation Into War Crimes Is Key to Securing Peace in Afghanistan
- Why Sudan’s transitional government might be giving the ICC a needed boost, in Will Sudan’s Bashir Finally Go on Trial for Genocide at the ICC?
- How the trial of a former commander in a brutal rebel group in Uganda might point the way to an alternative to the ICC, in Can a Court in Uganda Deliver Justice to Victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army?
- Why the Trump administration has gone on the offensive against the ICC, in The International Criminal Court Is in Danger of Being Bullied Into Irrelevance
Africa’s Transitional Justice Challenge
A continent that has seen multiple conflicts has also been home to a variety of attempts to achieve transitional justice. The Central African Republic began a series of popular consultations in anticipation of establishing its transitional justice mechanism last year, and the Gambia has also stood up a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission, though there are concerns over whether institutions in both countries will have the mandate to effectively deliver justice to victims. Similar efforts on the continent have also been criticized for being toothless, including Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Organized to address the atrocities committed under Charles Taylor’s regime, most of its recommendations were ultimately ignored.
- How ongoing violence in Darfur is undermining Sudan’s transition to democracy, in Why Sudan’s Democratic Transition Depends on Stability in Darfur
- What a crackdown on protests reveal about Gambia’s post-dictatorship transition, in Barrow’s Crackdown on Protesters Rolls Back Gambia’s Democratic Gains
- Why delivering justice will be critical to consolidating civilian rule in Sudan, in After Bashir’s Ouster, the Hard Work of Sudan’s Revolutions Has Only Begun
- Why truth and reconciliation might be forced to take a backseat to practical politics in CAR, in The Central African Republic’s New Peace Deal Is a Small Step in the Right Direction
Halting Efforts in Latin America
Much of Latin America is still grappling with the atrocities that were committed by authoritarian regimes that dominated the continent from the 1960s until the 1980s. Efforts to deliver justice to the victims of those regimes have been mixed. And more recent initiatives, like a peace agreement in Colombia designed to bring a rebel group in from the cold and prompt a nationwide reconciliation, are also faltering.
- What persistent low-level political violence means for Colombia’s faltering peace process, in ‘In Many Ways, the Conflict Never Ended.’ Ongoing Violence Threatens Colombia’s Peace
- Why the prominent role assumed by Latin America’s militaries in coronavirus pandemic response efforts is a cause for concern, in ‘The Soldier Is Here to Defend You.’ Latin America’s Militarized Response to COVID-19
- How Brazil’s failure to come to terms with its dictatorship past paved the way for Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power, in In Brazil, Dictatorship-Era Wounds Never Really Healed. Then Came Bolsonaro
- Why efforts to achieve justice for atrocities committed during Cold War-era civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala are facing new obstacles, in Are El Salvador and Guatemala Seeking Justice for War Crimes, or Trying to Cover Them Up?
Europe’s Politics of Forgetting
While transitional justice is often associated with the Global South, some of the earliest international mechanisms for the pursuit of accountability were launched in Europe. The ICC, for instance, borrowed features from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. But countries in Europe, as elsewhere, have a checkered history when it comes to confronting the legacy of their past.
- Why the exhumation of Francisco Franco is calling into question Spain’s post-dictatorship transition, in Franco’s Exhumation and the Unsettled Legacy of Spain’s Democratic Transition
- How Serbia’s failure to confront its past under Slobodan Milosevic has facilitated a slide toward authoritarianism under Aleksandar Vucic today, in Two Decades After the Fall of Milosevic, Dictatorship Is Returning to Serbia
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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2019 and is regularly updated.