Moving Beyond Formal Truth Practices and Forensic Truth in the Syrian Conflict: How Informal Truth Practices Contribute to Thicker Understandings of Truth

IF 1.4 2区社会学 Q2 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Social & Legal Studies Pub Date : 2022-11-01 DOI:10.1177/09646639221134965

B. Herremans, Tine Destrooper

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Truth is a central concept in the struggle for justice for Syrians. Many justice actors have turned to the tools and rhetoric of transitional justice to further the quest for justice and truth. Yet, while doing so has allowed them to generate some international attention for victims, the transitional justice paradigm has several pitfalls. For one, the dominant understanding of truth and truth-seeking embraced in formal mechanisms tends to be narrowly defined as forensic truth. We argue on the basis of interviews with Syrian justice actors and artists that informal, including artistic, practices can entail a thicker understanding of truth. They have the potential to disrupt several shortcomings of forensic understanding of truth and formal practices. They can ‘presence’ experiences of harm, accommodate multivocal truths, and enable epistemic resistance. Therefore, we consider how transitional justice as a field of scholarship and practice could better engage with truth-seeking in inconclusive contexts where formal truth mechanisms may be unavailable.

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在叙利亚冲突中超越正式真相实践和法医真相:非正式真相实践如何有助于加深对真相的理解

真相是叙利亚人争取正义的核心概念。许多司法行动者已转向过渡时期司法的工具和修辞，以进一步寻求正义和真理。然而，虽然这样做使他们能够引起对受害者的一些国际关注，但过渡司法范式有几个陷阱。首先，在正式机制中对真理和寻求真理的主流理解往往被狭隘地定义为法医真理。根据对叙利亚正义行动者和艺术家的采访，我们认为，包括艺术在内的非正式实践可以让我们对真相有更深入的理解。它们有可能打破法医对真相和正式实践的理解的若干缺陷。他们可以“存在”伤害的经验，容纳多种声音的真理，并使认知抵抗。因此，我们考虑过渡时期司法作为一个学术和实践领域，如何在不确定的背景下更好地参与寻求真相，在这种情况下，正式的真相机制可能不可用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social & Legal Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

3.30

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES was founded in 1992 to develop progressive, interdisciplinary and critical approaches towards socio-legal study. At the heart of the journal has been a commitment towards feminist, post-colonialist, and socialist economic perspectives on law. These remain core animating principles. We aim to create an intellectual space where diverse traditions and critical approaches within legal study meet. We particularly welcome work in new fields of socio-legal study, as well as non-Western scholarship.