Transitional Justice Forum

'Amnesty' book chapter now on the web

Katherine McNamara, the editor of the online magazine Archipelago has now published the concluding chapter of my book Amnesty after Atrocity?: Healing Nations after Genocide and War Crimes on the web, with my permission and that of the publisher. So...

What do we mean by 'justice' and 'accountability'?

Meta-tasks for societies exiting from mass violence

The Death of Slobodan Milosevic

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia & Montenegro who was on trial at the ICTY on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, was found dead in his cell in The Hague...

TJ Doesn't Happen Overnight

The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper reported today that the rebuilding of Afghanistan will take a decade or more. In the article, Canada's Chief of Defence Staff debunks a number of TJ myths--including "peacekeeping," for which Canada has made...

Not Just "Justice"

I think it’s important, occasionally, to take a step back from what we’re working on in the world of Transitional Justice to see the bigger picture, and to better understand just where our small little piece of the puzzle fits....

International transitional justice problems in Africa

Transitional justice is most often viewed in terms of single countries, or more specifically, the mechanisms by which societies emerging from a destructive period reach and implement a balance between accountability and reconciliation. However, transition is not always a single-country...

Transitional Justice challenges in the African Great Lakes region

Please note that the following text was authored by Mr. Ndung'u Wainaina, the Executive Director of the International Center for Policy and Conflict, Nairobi, Kenya, and lightly edited by myself. I have just published an earlier contribution by Mr. Wainaina,...

The trials of transition

One of the recurring themes of transitional justice studies is the way in which measures designed to promote national reconciliation can themselves become sources of conflict, particularly if a significant interest group or leader is unwilling to accept the terms...

The Day After in Iraq

I’ve been working on a law review article about the need for a more complex and multifaceted approach to transitional justice in Iraq, and it strikes me how much attention is given to details of the trial of Saddam Hussein,...

War and Justice in Northern Uganda

Tim Allen’s War and Justice in Northern Uganda is a seminal work that carefully evaluates the conflict that has raged in the region for nearly twenty years. Allen is an anthropologist from the Crisis States Research Centre at the Development...

Thoughtful writings about TJ in Uganda, elsewhere

Joanna R. Quinn of the University of Western Ontario has recently sent me copies of-- and links to-- some of her great work about northern Uganda. Sadly, much of this work requires "registration" with the "publisher" of the periodicals concerned....

Missing continuity

Today's New York Times includes a long feature article on democratization in Morocco. The article touches on the work of the country's Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and also on the limits of transitional justice in countries that have made incomplete...

Dissecting the Iraqi Special Tribunal

On September 26, the New York Times carried two Op-ed pieces, respectively by Gary J. Bass and Eric Posner, that argued two very different "cases" about the working of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Taken together, these articles raise some thought-provoking...

On returning to first principles, part 1

This is a forum on transitional justice or, as its founder has stated, "the challenges of justice during transitions to a better world." The creation of a forum on this topic presupposes an agreement on exactly what transitional justice is....