Transitional Justice and Civilian Conflict Transformation

This study looks at the current state of transitional justice literature, research and practice, with a special focus on the non-judicial interventions in the field. The authors explore potential future research questions from a practice perspective and based on their own insights as practitioners. Using experiences from development and conflict transformation/ peacebuilding work they seek to embed transitional justice interventions in a holistic view of social transformation processes after violent conflict. In particular the paper offers a sharpened focus on the so-called ‘soft issues’ of transitioning - the social, cultural and psycho-emotional phenomena often seen as peripheral but, in fact, central to making or breaking the success of transitional justice interventions. Starting with a brief history and overview of the aims and definitions of transitional justice, the authors outline the conventionally mentioned non-judicial instruments of transitional justice such as truth commissions, reparations, restoration and social repair as well as institutional reform. They expand in some more depth on insights from critical trauma work, memory work and dialogue/encounter work making links to the long-term German experiences of dealing with the past. The study further explores a range of crosscutting issues - conflict contexts and the conditions of peace processes; global norms and local agency; the role of local resources, neo-traditional approaches and questions of identity, subjectivity and gender - thus tracing potential synergies between the fields of civilian conflict transformation and transitional justice