The role of tradition in transitional justice

Over the past two decades, more than 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have put an end to armed conflict or an authoritarian regime. Most of these were intra-state conflicts, i.e. conflicts within a single state, between the government and one or more armed groups, or between two or more armed groups. These conflicts caused large numbers of casualties. During many of these conflicts massive human rights violations were committed against civilians and often by civilians. As a consequence, donors developed strategies to deal with post-conflict reconstruction in these countries, with a view to enhance sustainable peace as a precondition to further development of the countries involved. In the framework of this evolution, this book looks into to the following research questions. First, have international actors involved in transitional justice developed a policy in relation to traditional justice and what are the main features? Second, what projects, programmes and interventions in the field of traditional justice are supported by international actors? And third, how do international actors deal with possible tensions between traditional justice and human rights