Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up

Abstract

This paper argues that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer‐term sustainability, shifting away from the top‐down ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach to allow ‘voices from below’ to be heard and heeded. It critiques dominant interpretations of key transitional justice concepts, and links them to the difficulties of post‐conflict transitional justice in a range of violently divided societies. Popular participation and local agency, it is argued, is necessary to achieve ends identified in much transitional justice discourse, and to embed mechanisms for the creation of sustainable peace. A Northern Ireland initiative (the Ardoyne Commemoration Project) will be explored in‐depth, illustrating how a bottom‐up ‘truth‐telling’ process can make a significant contribution to transitional justice and casting doubt on the validity of the deference to legal dominance in current policy and practice. The paper recommends that knowledge available in development studies and participatory theory be applied more clearly in debates and approaches in transitional justice.

Limits to the European Union’s Normative Power in a Post-conflict Society

“…It emphasises local ownership and local capacity-building, as well as local governance models as pillars of peacebuilding (Menkhaus 2006;Bland 2007;Klem and Frerks 2008;Hayman 2010;Siegle and O'Mahony 2010;Björkdahl and Gusic 2013). The second dimension orients to the local as a means of emancipating the 'voices from below' and argues for the inclusion of local agency in peacebuilding analyses (Lundy and McGovern 2008;Autesserre 2010;Paffenholz 2010;Mac Ginty 2010;Richmond 2013;.…”

Silent No More: Inclusion of Post-Conflict Women in Truth Commissions

“…The state officially authorizes a commission's operation (Brahm, 2004 Council, 2014). Many scholars believe that truth commissions are the best transitional justice mechanism to provide closure, promote healing, and help a society progress from its violent past (Lundy & McGovern, 2008).…”

“…For example, The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued tools and statements on transitional justice that include reference to gender (Lundy & McGovern, 2008). In particular, their report from 2014 discusses the role truth commissions can play with respect to gender and calls on future commissions to build on precedents set by past commissions (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2014).…”

Paradoxes and challenges of transitional justice at the ‘local’ level: historical enquiries in Northern Ireland

“…'Global civil society' is however a hotly contested concept; commentators have noted a less progressive and 'constraining side' and question its emancipatory potential (Bartelson, 2006). Simultaneously, transitional justice has been enthusiastically adopted by policy makers and it is now part of the standard 'package' of 'liberal' peace-building measures and United Nations peace-building programmes (Lundy & McGovern, 2008a). This has led some to argue, that the theoretical bases of many transitional justice policies resonates strongly with or is embedded in 'liberal' peace-building strategies (Turner, 2008;Sriram, 2007).…”

“…Theorists and practitioners of transitional justice are more aware than ever before that there cannot be a 'formulaic' top-down legalistic approach. This is reflected in an emerging 'bottom-up' perspective and multidisciplinary literature that advocates politically and culturally appropriate 'localised', 'locally owned' and 'bottom-up' transitional justice processes (for example, Arriaza & Roht-Arriaza, 2008;Betts, 2005;Gready, 2005;Lundy, 2009b;Lundy & McGovern, 2008a;McEvoy & McGregor, 2008). Given the diversity of societies in transition it is perhaps self-evident that what works in one situation may not necessarily in another.…”