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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
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Results for transitional justice
8 results foundAuthor: Vinck, Patrick Title: Building Peace, Seeking Justice: A Population-Based Survey on Attitudes About Accountability and Social Reconstruction in the Central African Republic Summary: Decades of political instability, state fragility, mismanagement, and a series of armed conflicts have led the Central African Republic (CAR) to a state of widespread violence and poverty. This study provides a better understanding of the scope and magnitude of violence in CAR and its consequences, as well as a snapshot of what the citizens of CAR believe is the best way to restore peace. It also examines the issue of justice and accountability for the serious crimes that were committed. This report provides the findings from a survey of 1,879 adults, residents of CAR, randomly selected in the capital city of Bangui, and the prefectures of Lobaye, Ombella M’Poko, Ouham, and Ouham Pende. These prefectures encompass a large geographic area representing 52 percent of the total population of CAR and have experienced varying levels of exposure to the conflicts. Locally trained teams conducted the interviews between November and December 2009. This report provides a detailed analysis of results on a wide range of topics related to the population’s priorities and needs, exposure to violence, security, community cohesion and engagement, access to information, conflict resolution, reintegration of former combatants, transitional justice, and reparations for victims. Details: Berkeley, CA: Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2010. 41p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: Central African Republic URL: Shelf Number: 119520 Keywords: Human RightsTransitional JusticeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Domingo, Pilar Title: Dealing with legacies of violence: Transitional justice and governance transitions Summary: The politics of redress, justice and accountability feature in most post-conflict and post-repression settings. This places transitional justice firmly on the policy agenda of international support to governance transitions. This Background Note reviews some key issues and questions to emerge from the growing literature on transitional justice. It looks at the expansion in the mandate and scope of transitional justice, the range of possible mechanisms and the political factors that influence choices and outcomes in practice. The paper concludes by setting out some key points that international actors need to consider if they are to engage strategically with these processes. Key messages include: - Where domestic political conditions are conducive to transitional justice, there are good reasons for the international community to support these processes. - There is a broad range of transitional justice mechanisms. Their objectives have evolved from an immediate concern with outcomes for victims to more ambitious goals related to state- and peace-building processes. - Transitional justice is a young field of empirical study. More is now known about the political factors that influence the possibility of transitional justice and its subsequent trajectory. - But little is known about both the effectiveness of international support to these processes and their impact on longer-term political and social outcomes. Details: London: Overseas Development Institute, 2012. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Background Note: Accessed September 15, 2014 at: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/7686.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/7686.pdf Shelf Number: 133321 Keywords: ReparationsRestorative JusticeRetributive JusticeTransitional Justice |
Author: Isaza, Eric Wyss Title: Supporting Conflict Transformation and Victims in Colombia: An analysis of the Official Development Assistance from 2002 to 2011 and beyond Summary: This research focuses on the ODA allocated to Colombia from 2002 to 2011, as a way to understand the role of the international community in the process of conflict transformation. Using national and international data and sources, the analysis provides evidence of the approaches of different international stakeholders to assist the victims and to support the country in its journey towards peace. The results indicate that at least two thirds of the ODA addressed various conflict-related topics and that 'conflict victims' received the highest share. They also hint to different assistance and protection strategies, and show that recovery and restoration gradually became part of the cooperation agenda. Based on these findings, the paper explores the perspectives of international cooperation for the country in the coming years and proposes strategic recommendations for future external support to the transformation of its conflict. Details: Geneva: Geneva Centre for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action, 2013. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Master's Thesis: Accessed February 18, 2015 at: http://www.cerahgeneve.ch/files/8813/9506/6896/CERAH-dissertation-Eric-Wyss.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.cerahgeneve.ch/files/8813/9506/6896/CERAH-dissertation-Eric-Wyss.pdf Shelf Number: 134634 Keywords: GuerillasTransitional JusticeVictims of ViolenceViolence (Colombia) |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: Transitional Justice and Colombia's Peace Talks Summary: In its latest report, Transitional Justice and Colombia's Peace Talks, the International Crisis Group proposes a model for transitional justice in the context of the promising negotiations between the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end decades of civil conflict. This requires that both sides confront highly sensitive issues, but a comprehensive transitional justice agreement is key to the ultimate acceptance of a peace accord by the courts, the Congress, and the Colombian people. The report's major findings and recommendations are: - Any viable transitional justice agreement will need to be acceptable well beyond just the two parties. Finding common ground among guerrillas, the government, critics of the peace talks, victims and a public largely unsympathetic to FARC would be difficult at the best of times. It will be even harder on the cusp of the 2014 electoral cycle, in which transitional justice is likely to be an explosive issue. But with courts, Congress and voters all having important roles to play in ratifying and implementing transitional justice measures, both parties have a strong incentive to agree on a deal that goes beyond their own narrow preferences. - Justice for victims of all the parties to the conflict, including the victims of state agents, is an essential part of any viable transitional justice regime. The core of Colombia's obligations under international human rights law must be respected. Responsibility for crimes should be addressed through a three-layered scheme: prosecution and punishment of those most responsible, from both sides, for the most serious crimes; an amnesty for FARC's political crimes; and an administrative procedure for FARC members not in the first two categories. Alongside these measures, the negotiating parties need to agree on the basics for a strong, inclusive and independent truth commission, renew the commitment to comprehensive reparations and set out a plan for guarantees that the abuses of the past will not be repeated. - The parties should not attempt to spell out every aspect of such a comprehensive transitional justice model themselves. Details should be left to implementing legislation. But negotiators must lay out credible and clear basic provisions to ensure victims' rights are upheld, create legal certainty for FARC members and foster the social support that can prevent a transitional justice regime - and the prospects for lasting peace - from unravelling in political and legal disputes. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2013. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 49: Accessed May 27, 2015 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/049-transitional-justice-and-colombia-s-peace-talks Year: 2013 Country: Colombia URL: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/colombia/049-transitional-justice-and-colombia-s-peace-talks Shelf Number: 129822 Keywords: Justice ReformJustice SystemsTransitional Justice |
Author: Copeland, Casie Title: Dancing in the Dark: Divergent approaches to improving security and justice in South Sudan Summary: The civil war that has consumed South Sudan since late 2013 raises uncomfortable questions about how a country that the international community helped to create and to which such substantial resources were dedicated could descend into civil war so quickly and to the surprise of so many. Violence has been a fact of life in South Sudan for decades; the long and dark history of violence and injustice illustrates the deep-rooted nature of these challenges and the hard work that will be necessary to overcome them. Improving the security and justice context is essential to a successful transition to peace and stability in South Sudan and to the realisation of the objectives of South Sudan's struggle for independence. This paper focuses on how, and to what effect, the international community supported security and justice initiatives in South Sudan from the start of the second Sudanese civil war (1983) up to the present. During that war (1983-2005), international support for security and justice largely took the form of community-based programming, primarily due to the absence of functioning government structures. 'People-to-people peacemaking' models that sought to improve security and justice at the local level in South Sudan generated tangible results in some areas, during some periods, but had little impact on the war's overarching structural dynamics. In the years following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), external support shifted towards nascent Southern Sudanese government structures, despite the limited reach of many civilian structures beyond the capital, as the programming context altered with the peace agreement. This type of support only increased after South Sudan's independence in 2011, despite clear signs that the statebuilding project itself was a major driver of conflict. Following the CPA, the international community approached security and justice development with far too much of a national-level, technical focus. It consistently failed to appropriately diagnose the challenges it sought to remedy. While South Sudanese counterparts sometimes had low capacities, many gained politically or financially from insecurity and a weak justice system. Despite these realities, donors generally programmed to the assumption that these challenges were a result of low capacity, leading to a reliance on technocratic solutions for many essentially political problems - with predictably poor outcomes. Seeing capacity as the primary challenge, the international community failed to recognise the South Sudanese leadership's deliberate efforts to govern and set policy, albeit not always in ways the international community liked. Despite clear evidence, emerging over years, that hundreds of millions of dollars of national-level, technocratic programmatic funding was not producing results, donors largely failed to re-assess their framework of support. The international community now has the opportunity to do better, both during the ongoing war and following a peace agreement. The question of how to do better can be broken down into two broad components. The first examines programming options that could mitigate some of the insecurity and injustice associated with the ongoing civil war. The second identifies critical security and justice building blocks that could be put in place now that would support a future peace. The table below summarises three starting points on each issue based on lessons learned from past international support for security and justice development in South Sudan. Details: The Hague: Clingendael (Netherlands Institute of International Relations), 2015. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 25, 2015 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/CRU_report-Dancing_in_the_Dark-Casie_Copeland-June2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Sudan URL: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/CRU_report-Dancing_in_the_Dark-Casie_Copeland-June2015.pdf Shelf Number: 136873 Keywords: SecurityTransitional JusticeViolence |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: The Day after Tomorrow: Colombia's FARC and the End of the Conflict Summary: As a final peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) nears, negotiators face an elaborate juggling act if they are to lay out a sustainable path for guerrilla fighters to disarm and reintegrate into civilian life. A viable transition architecture not only needs to be credible in the eyes of FARC but must also reassure a society that remains deeply unconvinced of the group's willingness to lay down its arms, cut its links with organised crime and play by the rules of democracy. The failure of disarmament and reintegration would at best delay the implementation of reforms already agreed at the Havana talks since 2012. At worst, it could plunge the entire agreement into a downward spiral of renewed violence and eroding political support. Strong internal and external guarantees are needed to carry the process through a probably tumultuous and volatile period ahead. There is a lot that can go wrong. Most of the 7,000 or so combatants, and three times that number in support networks, are concentrated in peripheral zones with little civilian state presence and infrastructure. Some guerrilla fronts are involved in the drug economy and illegal mining. In most regions FARC operates in proximity to the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second guerrilla group, or other illegal armed groups, exposing its members to security threats and an array of options for rearmament, recruitment and defiance. Major doubts linger about the military's commitment to the peace process, and its readiness to take the steps necessary to end the conflict. Political violence has subsided from the paramilitary heyday but could grow again, and FARC has not forgotten the thousands of killings that decimated the Patriotic Union (UP), a party it created as part of peace talks in the 1980s. And after decades of conflict with a rising civilian toll and negotiation efforts that ended in bitter failure, the parties are feeling their way forward amid deep mutual distrust and strong political opposition. None of these problems has a perfect short-term fix. But the starting position is not all bad. Colombia can tap into three decades of experience in reintegrating members of illegal armed groups and it has more financial and human resources than most post-conflict countries. FARC's command and control structures are in decent shape and guerrilla leaders have a strong interest in a successful transition. The Havana agenda, which alongside the "end of the conflict" includes rural development, political reintegration, transitional justice and the fight against illicit drugs, is, at least on paper, broad enough to embed the reintegration of FARC into a long-term peace-building strategy, particularly focused on the most affected territories. Finally, in sharp contrast to the paramilitary demobilisation, the region and the wider international community are strongly supportive. Negotiators need to agree on a reintegration offer that allows FARC to close ranks behind a transition process riddled with uncertainty and ambiguity. Given its deep-seated distrust toward the state, the best way to achieve this is, probably, to give FARC a stake in reintegration, capitalising on its cohesion. This would minimise the risk that FARC could split over the transition. But the parties must also be aware of and carefully manage the drawbacks to such a solution. To make a collective reintegration model palatable to a society disinclined to be generous to FARC and sceptical of its true intentions, negotiators should agree on strong measures of accountability, over-sight and transparency. They also need to promote local transitional justice to avoid an intensification of communal tensions following the arrival of FARC combatants. Such a long-term reintegration offer would probably facilitate the fraught negotiations over the conditions under which FARC is willing to abandon the conflict early on in the transition. A bilateral ceasefire needs to go into effect immediately after a final accord has been signed. This will require military de-escalation well ahead of that, but a formal ceasefire will only be sustainable once FARC's forces have been concentrated in assembly zones. After the agreement has been ratified, measures for "leaving weapons behind" (or disarmament) should begin. These are irreversible, risky steps, and convincing the guerrillas to take the plunge will not be made easier by the government's refusal to negotiate broader changes to the security forces. But the shared interest in a stable post-conflict period should provide sufficient space to hammer out a workable solution. Alongside security safeguards and interim measures to stabilise territories with FARC presence, this should include early progress in implementing key elements of the peace agreement and the establishment of a joint follow-up committee to ensure that the accords will be honoured after disarmament has been completed. Implementing the agreements will largely be the responsibility of the government and FARC. But in Colombia's sharply polarised environment, international actors will have to play a crucial role. An international, civilian-led mission should be invited to monitor and verify the ceasefire and disarmament. For such monitoring to be successful, the mission needs to have the necessary autonomy from the parties and the technical as well as the political capacity to deal with the predictable setbacks and disputes. Beyond that, international actors should remain engaged by providing high-level implementation guarantees, political support for contentious reforms, including of the security sector, and long-term financial commitment. None of the elements needed to stabilise the immediate post-conflict period is entirely new in the Colombian context, but jointly they will break the mould of previous disarmament and reintegration programs. Flexibility and determination from the negotiators will be needed, alongside renewed government efforts to boost social ownership of the peace process, in particular in conflict regions. Previous transitions have faltered over high levels of violence, public indifference and timid international involvement. A bolder and faster response is needed this time to set Colombia on an irreversible path toward peace. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2014. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America Report No. 53 ; Accessed April 21, 2017 at: https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/53-the-day-after-tomorrow-colombia-s-farc-and-the-end-of-the-conflict.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Colombia URL: https://d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/53-the-day-after-tomorrow-colombia-s-farc-and-the-end-of-the-conflict.pdf Shelf Number: 145138 Keywords: FARCGuerrilla FightersTransitional JusticeViolence |
Author: Yu, Lilly Title: Alternative Forms of Justice for Human Trafficking Survivors: Considering Procedural, Restorative, and Transitional Justice Summary: Alternative forms of justice show promise for human trafficking survivors, who often do not find resolution (such as conviction and incarceration for their traffickers) through the traditional criminal justice system. The Bending Towards Justice: Perceptions of Justice among Human Trafficking Survivors study is the first to ask survivors of human trafficking whether nonpunitive forms of justice would complement or compensate existing remedies. Drawing from qualitative interviews with 80 survivors of sex and labor trafficking, this brief documents survivors' experiences with and perceptions of alternative practices, including procedural, restorative, and transitional justice. While all survivors have extensive experience with procedural justice practices, only some survivors have experienced restorative and transitional justice practices. Those who had not experienced restorative and transitional justice found them desirable and promising. Service provider and criminal justice stakeholders may help survivors achieve justice for their victimization experiences by incorporating these alternative forms of justice in their practices. A key finding from the Bending Towards Justice study is human trafficking survivors' difficulty in achieving justice through the traditional criminal justice process. Various factors, including challenges survivors face participating in criminal cases against their traffickers and the inability of retributive justice outcomes, primarily the conviction and incarceration of a trafficker, impede justice for all survivors (Love et al. 2018b). As a result, practitioners, policymakers, and survivor advocates are rethinking how survivors of human trafficking can achieve justice for their experiences. Several alternative forms of justice have been shown to be viable additions or alternatives to traditional criminal justice. Three models show promise when applied to human trafficking cases: (1) procedural justice, (2) restorative justice, and (3) transitional justice. - Procedural justice models argue that the process by which justice is achieved is more important than the outcome of a case. More specifically, theories of procedural justice maintain that survivors' perceptions of justice are influenced by opportunities to be involved in the decisions made in service provision and criminal justice processes and the opportunities to participate in both by having a voice and expressing their side of the story (Thibaut and Walker 1975; Tyler 1988, 1990). An overarching element of procedural justice, therefore, is the respectful treatment of survivors as they pursue services for themselves and/or criminal justice outcomes for their traffickers. - Restorative justice models argue that criminal justice outcomes, including convictions and imprisonment, are not always the best response to crimes against a person (Bolivar 2013; Mika et al. 2004). In the case of human trafficking, nonpunitive, survivor-defined responses, including an acknowledgment of wrongdoing or an apology from traffickers, survivor confrontation of their traffickers, and the payment of reparations might significantly affect perceptions of justice. - Transitional justice models argue that larger community efforts to respond to crimes by acknowledging the harms that have occurred and preventing them from occurring again are most likely to promote peace, provide a sense of justice, and result in longer-term impacts (David and Yuk-Ping 2005; Teitel 2003; van Zyl 1999; Waldorf 2006). Transitional justice for human trafficking survivors primarily focuses on reforms to institutions and policies and educational and memorial initiatives, such as human trafficking awareness campaigns and speaking with policymakers regarding human trafficking-related legislation. While research on the effects of alternative forms of justice has largely been limited to people who are accused of crimes, these models could improve survivor perceptions of justice and reform traditional responses to human trafficking. In response, this brief explores how procedural, restorative, and transitional justice can lead to justice for survivors of human trafficking and complement or compensate for traditional justice system remedies. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2018. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 2, 2018 at: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/97341/alternative_forms_of_justice_for_human_trafficking_survivors_0.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/97341/alternative_forms_of_justice_for_human_trafficking_survivors_0.pdf Shelf Number: 149978 Keywords: Human Trafficking Procedural JusticeRestorative JusticeTransitional JusticeVictim Services Victims of Crime Victims of Trafficking |
Author: Institute for Integrated Transitions Title: The Limits of Punishment: Transitional Justice and Violent Extremism Summary: The Limits of Punishment is a research project led by the United Nations University's Centre for Policy Research, in partnership with the Institute for Integrated Transitions, and supported by the UK Department for International Development. It seeks to understand if, when and how transitional justice, in combination with other conflict resolution tools, can contribute to transitions away from conflict in settings affected by major jihadist groups. Specifically, it aims to answer two questions: 1. What are the effects of current approaches toward punishment and leniency for individuals accused of association with jihadist groups in fragile and conflict-affected states? 2. What factors should policymakers consider in designing alternative and complementary strategies leveraging transitional justice tools to better contribute to sustainable transitions away from conflict? To answer the first question, the project undertook three fieldwork-based case studies that assessed nationally-led approaches to handling individuals accused of having been associated with: al Shabaab in Somalia; Boko Haram in Nigeria; and the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. The case studies look at a broad range of formal and informal mechanisms of punishment and leniency. These include, inter alia: amnesties; prosecutions; traditional justice; and disarmament, demobilisation, reintegration (DDR), rehabilitation, and similar programs that, in practice, offer some individuals alternatives to criminal justice. The case studies demonstrate the risks of excessively heavy-handed and at times indiscriminate approaches that penalise broad sectors of local populations accused of association with these groups, and assess the quality and limitations of existing leniency programs for such individuals. To answer the second question, the Institute for Integrated Transitions' Law and Peace Practice Group - a group of leading transitional justice experts - analysed the empirical evidence of the case studies in light of broader lessons learned from decades of international practice in the field of transitional justice. On this basis, the Group developed a framework to assist national policymakers and practitioners - as well as their international partners - in applying transitional justice tools as part of a broader strategy to resolve conflicts involving groups deemed violent extremist. The framework offers a range of approaches toward effectively balancing leniency and accountability, that can be tailored to conflict settings marked by violent extremism. Details: Tokyo: United Nations University, 2018. 146p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 29, 2018 at: http://ifit-transitions.org/resources/publications/major-publications-briefings/the-limits-of-punishment-transitional-justice-and-violent-extremism/final-the-limits-of-punishment-01062018.pdf/view Year: 2018 Country: International URL: http://ifit-transitions.org/resources/publications/major-publications-briefings/the-limits-of-punishment-transitional-justice-and-violent-extremism/final-the-limits-of-punishment-01062018.pdf/view Shelf Number: 150732 Keywords: Conflict ResolutionExtremist GroupsJihadistsPunishmentRadical GroupsTerroristsTransitional JusticeViolent Extremism |