Justice and peace after war : conceptual difficulties in the discourses of transition and reform in post-war societies

This paper explains conceptual lapses in the discourses of transition and reform in post-war societies. Critical, is the fluidity that characterizes notions of survivor and victim in the context of peace and justice. Transitional interventions continuously create victims of war in their attempt to create survivors of war. Although my focus is northern Uganda, I also draw examples from other parts of the world. I argue that legal inclusiveness, market inclusivity, and resolved antecedents of conflicts create conditions that facilitate implementation processes of integration, settlement, and reconstruction of post-war societies. Creating “survivability” is a collective work of surviving communities, national, local, and other exogenous entities. The way reform processes are played out in transitional period stems from how international agencies, national governments, civil societies, non-governmental organizations, and local actors deploy human and material resources towards recovery..