Despite the growing focus on issues of socio-economic transformation in contemporary transitional justice, the path dependencies imposed by the political economy of war-to-peace transitions and the limitations imposed by weak statehood are seldom considered. This book explores transitional justice’s prospects for seeking economic justice and reform of structures of poverty in the specific context of post-conflict states.
"Maintaining the importance of socio-economic issues in devising transitional justice mechanisms, this book examines the widespread practice of land grabbing in Afghanistan. On 3rd September 2003, one hundred armed police officers bulldozed around thirty homes in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, evicting over 250 people. Historically, the land was part of the property of the Ministry of Defense, of which a zone was allocated to the ministry's employees who had built homes and had lived there for nearly 30 years. After the demolition, however, the land was distributed among 300 high-ranking government officials, including ministers, deputy ministers, governors, and other powerful warlords. Land grabbing in Afghanistan has become a widespread practice across the country. Based on over 50 semi-structured interviews with key informants and group discussions with war victims and local experts, this book examines the relevance of transitional justice mechanism in response to this situation. Following a critical criminological concern with social harm, this book maintains that it is not enough to consider a country's political history of violent conflict and the violation of civil and political rights alone. Rather, to decide on appropriate transitional justice mechanisms, it is crucial to consider a country's socio-economic background, and above all the socio-economic harm inflicted on people during periods of violent conflict. This original and detailed account of the socio-economic challenges faced by transitional justice mechanisms will be of interest to those studying and working in this area in law, politics and development studies"--
This book explores the intersection of two emergent and vibrant fields of study in international human rights law: transitional justice and corporate accountability for human rights abuses. While both have received significant academic and political attention, the potential links between them remain largely unexplored. This book addresses the normative question of how international human rights law should deal with corporate accountability and violations of economic, social and cultural rights in transitional justice processes. Drawing on the Argentinian transitional justice process, the book outlines the theoretical and practical challenges of including corporate accountability in transitional justice processes through existing mechanisms. Offering specific insights about how to deal with those challenges, it argues that consideration of the role of all actors, and the whole spectrum of human rights violated, is crucial to properly address the root causes of violence and conflict as well as to contribute to a sustainable and positive peace. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to students and scholars of transitional justice, human rights law, corporate law and international law.
This book addresses the issue of corruption as a socio-economic rights concern at a national level. Zimbabwe’s widespread corruption inhibited its development in all aspects. It weakened institutions, especially those called upon to arbitrate political and economic contests, leading to potential human rights violations. However, Zimbabwe saw a change of government in November 2017. Due to this, there seemed to be an opening to work towards reform in relation to the anti-corruption architecture. Specifically, the new era provides an opportunity to review how accountability mechanisms (including but not limited to amnesties, truth commissions, institutional reforms and prosecutions) can address corruption as a socio-economic rights violation. As the new government still tries to address competing priorities, many moving parts and various matrixes, this volume in the International Criminal Justice Series provides a timely frame for revisiting the debate and developing the strategic thinking regarding transitional justice options in Zimbabwe. It will be of great interest to practitioners, policy makers, scholars and students in the fields of anti-corruption, socio-economic and human rights, and transitional justice. Prosper Maguchu is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Centre for the Politics of Transnational Law of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
This book examines the role of economic violence (violations of economic and social rights, corruption, and plunder of natural resources) within the transitional justice agenda. Because economic violence often leads to conflict, is perpetrated during conflict, and continues afterwards as a legacy of conflict, a greater focus on economic and social rights issues in the transitional justice context is critical. One might add that insofar as transitional justice is increasingly seen as an instrument of peacebuilding rather than a simple political transition, focus on economic violence as the crucial “root cause” is key to preventing re-lapse into conflict. Recent increasing attention to economic issues by academics and truth commissions suggest this may be slowly changing, and that economic and social rights may represent the “next frontier” of transitional justice concerns. There remain difficult questions that have yet to be worked out at the level of theory, policy, and practice. Further scholarship in this regard is both timely, and necessary. This volume therefore presents an opportunity to fill an important gap. The project will bring together new papers by recognized and emerging scholars and policy experts in the field.
As developing societies emerge from legacies of conflict and authoritarianism, they are frequently beset by poverty, inequality, weak institutions, broken infrastructure, poor governance, insecurity, and low levels of social capital. These countries also tend to propagate massive human rights violations, which displace victims who are marginalized, handicapped, widowed, and orphaned--in other words, people with strong claims to justice. Those who work with others to address development and justice often fail to supply a coherent response to these concerns. The essays in this volume confront the intricacies--and interconnectedness--of transitional governance issues head on, mapping the relationship between two fields that, academically and in practice, have grown largely in isolation of one another. The result of a research project conducted by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), this book explains how justice and recovery can be aligned not only in theory but also in practice, among both people and governments as they reform.
Maintaining the importance of socio-economic issues in devising transitional justice mechanisms, this book examines the widespread practice of land grabbing in Afghanistan. On 3 September 2003, 100 armed police officers bulldozed around 30 homes in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, evicting over 250 people. Historically, the land was part of the property of the Ministry of Defense, of which a zone was allocated to the ministry’s employees who had built homes and had lived there for nearly 30 years. After the demolition, however, the land was distributed among 300 high-ranking government officials, including ministers, deputy ministers, governors and other powerful warlords. Land grabbing in Afghanistan has become a widespread practice across the country. Based on over 50 semi-structured interviews with key informants and group discussions with war victims and local experts in Kabul, the current book examines the relevance of transitional justice discourse and practice in response to this situation. Following a critical criminological concern with social harm, the book maintains that it is not enough to consider a country’s political history of violent conflict and the violation of civil and political rights alone. Rather, to decide on appropriate transitional justice mechanisms, it is crucial to consider a country’s socio-economic background, and above all the socio-economic harm inflicted on people during periods of violent conflict. This original and detailed account of the socio-economic challenges faced by transitional justice mechanisms will be of interest to those studying and working in this area in law, politics, development studies and criminology.
This publication deals with the topic of transitional justice. In six case studies, the authors link theoretical and practical implications in order to develop some innovative approaches. Their proposals might help to deal more effectively with the transition of societies, legal orders and political systems. Young academics from various backgrounds provide fresh insights and demonstrate the relevance of the topic. The chapters analyse transitions and conflicts in Sierra Leone, Argentina, Nicaragua, Nepal, and South Sudan as well as Germany’s colonial genocide in Namibia. Thus, the book provides the reader with new insights and contributes to the ongoing debate about transitional justice. Gegenstand dieser Publikation ist das Thema „Transitional Justice“. In sechs Fallstudien verknüpfen die Autoren theoretische und praktische Implikationen, um innovative Ansätze zu entwickeln. Ihre Vorschläge wollen dazu beitragen, den Übergangsprozess von Gesellschaften, Rechtsordnungen und politischen Systemen effektiver zu gestalten. Nachwuchswissenschaftler mit unterschiedlichem fachlichem Hintergrund geben hier neue Einblicke und zeigen die fortdauernde Relevanz des Themas. Die Kapitel analysieren Übergänge und Konflikte in Sierra Leone, Argentinien, Nicaragua, Nepal und Süd-Sudan sowie den kolonialen Völkermord in Namibia. So liefert das Buch dem Leser neue Erkenntnisse und trägt zur laufenden Debatte über das Thema „Transitional Justice“ bei.
Increasing numbers of academics and practitioners are employing the language of economic and social rights (ESR) when conceptualising the aims, scope and implementation mechanisms of transitional justice. Their contributions have contributed to an evolving debate on the boundaries of transitional justice. However, when employing rights language, the current debate on the economic and social dimensions of transitional justice frequently suffers from terminological and conceptual confusion; problematically, it is not unusual for the claims made by transitional justice commentators with regard to ESR frequently to be founded on apparent misconceptions about both the legal framework and existing scholarship relating to ESR. Addressing these misconceptions in terms of four key dichotomies and suggesting the way forward, the authors of this article prepare the ground for a more effective debate on the desirability and feasibility of incorporating ESR in transitional justice processes. In doing so, they assert that such a debate must be based on an accurate understanding of ESR and the obligations they impose. They conclude by demonstrating how the inclusion of ESR considerations in transitional justice does not necessitate the rethinking of transitional justice as a whole.
The chapters of this book explore, from different disciplinary perspectives, the relationship between transitional justice, distributive justice, and economic efficiency in the settlement of internal armed conflicts. They specifically discuss the role of land reform as an instrument of these goals, and examine how the balance between different perspectives has been attempted (or not) in selected cases of internal armed conflicts, and how it should be attempted in principle. Although most chapters closely examine the Colombian case, some provide a comparative perspective that includes countries in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, while others examine some of the more general, theoretical issues involved.
