{"title":"Editorial Special Section: ‘Transitional Justice and Nature: A Curious Silence’","authors":"L. Viaene, P. Doran, Jonathan F D Liljeblad","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44799168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Office on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka: Why Truth Is a Radical Proposition","authors":"Chulani Kodikara","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In 2016, the Sri Lanka Parliament passed the Office on Missing Persons Act (OMP) ‘to search for and trace missing persons.’ At the time, Sinhala Buddhist nationalist leaders strongly objected to it. In this article, I read their resistance as resistance to a truth-seeking mechanism. Locating my analysis within a global paradigm of ‘dealing with the past’ through truth-seeking that assumes that ‘truth is easier than justice,’ I show that nationalist resistance to the OMP flies in the face of this assumption. In postwar Sri Lanka, truth is not just a second-best option to justice but an equally radical demand. However, I also show that those same resistors have maintained the OMP on returning to power for several different reasons. Finally, I explore the response of relatives of the disappeared to the OMP and their increasing demand for an international truth and justice mechanism.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45563868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Narrowing the Gap in the Access to Justice for Child Victims in Postconflict Societies: An Analysis Stemming from the Construction of Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy","authors":"Christelle Molima Bameka","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A controversial approach characterizes international law and policy on children affected by armed conflict: it is much more concerned with child soldiers’ victimization than with their victims’ situation. This approach leads to (1) the prioritization of the former over the child victims of their crimes before judicial and non-judicial mechanisms and (2) a significant disparity in how international law and policy respond to the victimization of war-affected children in the presence of those categorized as ‘child soldiers.’ To narrow this gap, this article explores the potential of defining child soldiers as victims who victimize during trials. It does so by discussing the practice observed in local juvenile courts in the North and South Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48893398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Laura Ordóñez-Vargas, L. C. Peralta Gonzalez, Enrique Prieto-Ríos
{"title":"An Econcentric Turn in the Transitional Restorative Justice Process in Colombia","authors":"Laura Ordóñez-Vargas, L. C. Peralta Gonzalez, Enrique Prieto-Ríos","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article reflects on how Colombia, as an important laboratory in transitional restorative justice, a 60-year long internal conflict, is experiencing an ‘ecocentric turn.’ This transition is not free from contradiction, ambivalence or great challenges. For this article, ‘ecocentric turn’ means an epistemological movement from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism, with biocentrism as the middle stage between the two ends. We argue that the ecocentric turn does not exclusively imply postures that are purely anthropocentric or ecocentric, but also ones that are hybrid and eclectic, which for the purposes of this article will be called biocentric positions. The ecocentric turn is reviewed on two levels: the first is the institutional level, focusing on the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP for its name in Spanish); and the second level corresponds to the experience of Palestina, Huila, a non-ethnic campesino community.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41426185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reckoning with Conservation Violence on Indigenous Territories: Possibilities and Limitations of a Transitional Justice Response","authors":"Colin Luoma","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article reflects on the merits of applying transitional justice to wrongs caused by the creation and enforcement of protected areas on Indigenous Peoples’ territories, referred to herein as ‘conservation violence.’ Conservation violence commonly infringes on an interrelated set of human rights, constituting a principal threat to both Indigenous Peoples and the environment. This wrongdoing has not been adequately scrutinized in transitional justice discourse, despite the field’s recent expansion into areas of Indigenous and environmental harm. This article argues there are sound conceptual and pragmatic reasons for transitional justice to engage with conservation violence, with potential benefits flowing to both Indigenous Peoples and nature. Yet, it is unlikely to deliver what Indigenous Peoples principally demand, namely restitution of their lands, territories and resources. This raises concerns regarding the suitability of applying conventional transitional justice in this context and dictates that any process should be approached modestly, cautiously and in complement to broader, long-term reforms aimed at land restitution and decolonization.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44302213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nature in Focus: The Invisibility and Re-Emergence of Rivers, Land and Animals in Colombia’s Transitional Justice System","authors":"Isabella Ariza-Buitrago, Luisa Gómez-Betancur","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijad001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijad001","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Harms resulting from a 50-year-old conflict in Colombia were out of all proportion. Clashes between organized armed groups, such as guerillas, army troops and paramilitary groups, resulted in countless human rights violations. The emergence, degradation and continuation of the war has shown that, beyond a clash of armed groups, the conflict was and continues to be underpinned by a ‘logic of dispossession, exploitation, and domination.’ In the shadows of the strife, non-armed actors, such as businesspeople, corporations and politicians, benefited from the war, and participated in land grabbing, forced displacement and the illegal possession of land that historically belonged to Indigenous People, campesino and afro-communities. Along with human bodies as the first territory targeted for dispossession, lands, rivers and animals were severely impacted. This article explains how the Colombian transitional justice architecture – anthropocentric and focused only on armed actors’ accountability – is ill-equipped to deliver justice and remedy for victims of corporate abuse and to properly address the harms against land, rivers and animals. This piece also reflects on the endeavours that both transitional justice institutions themselves and civil society at the domestic and international levels have made to effectively respond to the Colombian conflict’s systems of dispossession and, most importantly, to their victims.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136335961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Truth Commission Models Travel: Explaining the Norwegian Case","authors":"Elin Skaar","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijac027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijac027","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT∞ This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of racism, using Norway as a case study. It examines the background for the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2018 to investigate the consequences of historical and ongoing assimilation of the indigenous Sami people and two national minorities. I argue that although the Norwegian TRC was established in direct response to an initiative from the Sami Parliament, its successful creation was a result of political negotiations involving a series of actors, including Sami activists, mainstream politicians and various interest organizations. The protagonists pushing for a truth commission were in turn encouraged and inspired by a global focus on transitional justice, truth commissions and indigenous rights. Based on a desk study, interviews and media reports, and applying a theoretical framework emphasizing agency and norm diffusion, I argue that while the Norwegian TRC has explicitly used truth commissions elsewhere in the world – particularly the Canadian TRC – as models, it is quite unique in terms of mandate and design.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135311819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Global South’ Voices Are Muted in Debates over the Crime of Aggression: What Three Books on Illegal War Tell Us About Why","authors":"Mark Kersten","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijac028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijac028","url":null,"abstract":"Political and legal efforts to criminalize illegal warfare have received a tremendous amount of attention since the 2002 establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). At no point have discussions on the crime of aggression reached such feverish levels as they did following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. Ongoing debate over how to investigate and prosecute the invasion, alongside the relatively muted response of the global South to a proposed specialized tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders for the crime of aggression, is symptomatic of how diplomats have crafted the crime over the past two decades. Those negotiations – their reasoning, political contours, historicity and consequences – have been studiously covered by Carrie McDougall, Tom Dannenbaum and Noah Weisbord in their respective books on the crime of aggression. Theirs are persuasive volumes written by thoughtful and diligent scholars of international criminal law (ICL). The books offer detailed assessments of what the crime is, its historical trajectory, its adoption and particular jurisdictional shape under the Rome Statute, as well as the role it might play in moderating international relations’ most devastating excess: war. Each author speaks to the politics of law and, to put it crudely, how the proverbial sausage – international law in this case – is made. The books articulate with laudable finesse how the crime of aggression came to be what it is today. This is, at times, a grim task, and the disappointment of the authors at the neutered version of the crime of aggression included under the Rome Statute is apparent. At the same time, these volumes, which also offer much hope, include lessons for the law student, diplomat and negotiator on how negotiations capture particular cross-sections in time and politics.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136296814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring the Nexus between Transitional Justice and Ecoterritorial Conflict Resolution: Time for an Ecoterritorial Turn in Transformative Transitional Justice?","authors":"Sarah Kerremans, Tine Destrooper","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijac026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijac026","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT∞ This article explores the nexus between ecoterritorial conflict resolution and transformative transitional justice, against the background of (neo)extractivism and the Peruvian case of half a century of oil violence. Our argument is twofold. On the one hand, we argue that transitional justice can act as a conceptual and analytical lens to better understand and further (claims for) change while also countering the invisibilization of ecoterritorial struggles of Indigenous and local communities who resist the framing of their lives and ecosystems as sacrificable or disposable. On the other hand, we argue that reading ecoterritorial struggles through the lens of transitional justice also has implications for the paradigm itself. The article is rooted in the first author’s longstanding work with Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon who engage with transitional justice discourses and practices as part of their struggle against oil violence.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136267009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Harm, Relationality and More-than-Human Worlds: Developing the Field of Transitional Justice in New Posthumanist Directions","authors":"J. Clark","doi":"10.1093/ijtj/ijac025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijac025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Consistent with its liberal origins, the field of transitional justice is overwhelmingly concerned with harms done to human victims. Posthumanism, however, challenges the framing of humans as bounded and autonomous individuals, emphasizing that all of us are entangled within wider relational assemblages that reflect the deep interconnections between human and more-than-human worlds. The core aim of this interdisciplinary article is to demonstrate what posthumanism can potentially contribute to transitional justice in the sense of pluralizing how we think, ontologically and epistemologically, about it – and in particular about the concepts of harm and, relatedly, agency. In discussing how posthumanist ideas and concerns might be practically incorporated into the field, the article explores the utility of two key concepts – social-ecological systems and visceral geography.","PeriodicalId":46927,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Transitional Justice","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45936556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}