From Transitional to Transformative Justice: A New Agenda for Practice

Abstract

Transitional justice has become a globally dominant lens through which to approach states addressing legacies of a violent past. An industry of praxis has emerged, supported by dedicated nongovernmental organizations and large-scale funding from western donors. Yet, the performance and impact of transitional justice mechanisms have been at best ambiguous and at times disappointing. This article proposes a new agenda for practice, one that offers a concept of justice that is more 'transformative' than 'transitional.' The article starts by setting out the limitations of transitional justice, and recent responses to these limitations in transitional justice practice. A definition of transformative justice draws on this discussion as well as insights from related fields such as peace building and conflict transformation. A final section of the article, on tools for transformative justice, provides practical guidance on how to implement a more transformative transitional justice.

“I Want to be Able to Walk the Street Without Fear”: Transforming Justice for Street Harassment

“…Indeed, the traditional justice system (in conjunction with other dominant institutions and structures) directly contributes towards and reproduces structural inequalities, oppression and violence, and this is certainly reflected in existing criminal justice responses to sexual violence (Boesten and Wilding 2015;Capeheart and Milovanovic 2007;Coker 2002;Kelly 2010). Statecentred responses can work to disengage individuals from participating in justice processes, allowing only a limited, peripheral role for most actors (Gready and Robbins 2014). ''I Want to be Able to Walk the Street Without Fear' '… 207 Transformative justice thus demands that we develop new and creative justice mechanisms that sit outside of (or, at least, are less strongly centred around) these formal structures and institutions (Ansfield and Colman 2012;Boesten and Wilding 2015;Gready and Robbins 2014;Mugabo 2015).…”

“…Statecentred responses can work to disengage individuals from participating in justice processes, allowing only a limited, peripheral role for most actors (Gready and Robbins 2014). ''I Want to be Able to Walk the Street Without Fear' '… 207 Transformative justice thus demands that we develop new and creative justice mechanisms that sit outside of (or, at least, are less strongly centred around) these formal structures and institutions (Ansfield and Colman 2012;Boesten and Wilding 2015;Gready and Robbins 2014;Mugabo 2015). Rather than seeking to retrospectively redress harms, transformative justice is ''interested in how different justice strategies and mechanisms can contribute to the reconfiguration of power beyond individual experiences of violence and injustice…at [a] societal level'' (Boesten and Wilding 2015, 75).…”

“…Importantly, Daly (2002, 78) contends that in order for justice responses to be transformative in the context of societies in transition, such responses (or institutions, as per Daly) must be ''tailored to the particularities of time and place of the society in which they operate''. In a similar vein, Anna Erikkson (2009, 305) suggests that within post-conflict societies ''justice needs to be 'embedded within' to engage with the communities, cultures and contexts of conflict'' (see also Gready and Robbins 2014;Lambourne and Rodriguez Carreon 2016). That is, post-conflict contexts require a 'bottom-up' approach grounded in the needs and preferred justice responses of community members.…”

“…To date, feminist and other writing on transformative justice has tended to focus on its potential as a framework for justice within post-conflict societies (Boesten and Wilding 2015;Daly 2002;Gready and Robbins 2014;Lambourne and Rodriguez Carreon 2016), in international development contexts (Cornwall and Rivas 2015;Hankivsky 2005), and as a pedagogical practice (Keddie 2006). Despite this focus, there is great potential for transformative justice as a frame to address ''everyday'' manifestations of sexual violence.…”

Transformative Justice, Reparations and Transatlantic Slavery

“…Transformative justice, on the other hand, has emerged in recent years as a concept responding to and seeking to address some of the identified shortcomings of transitional justice (see, for example, Daly, 2002;Gready and Robins, 2014;Evans, 2016). Broadly, transitional justice processes have tended to focus on individual victims and perpetrators of human rights abuses and, especially, on direct violations of bodily integrity (through torture, killings and disappearances particularly).…”