Paper short abstract:

This study develops a conceptual framework of TRC engagement by empirically examining ex-combatant experiences in Sierra Leone. Conceptual clarity on TRC engagement enhances evaluations of agency, power and impact between those who affect, and those affected by, measures of transitional justice.

Paper long abstract:

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are celebrated for being a highly locally engaging model of transitional justice, though a clear conceptualization of the modalities of engagement therein remains absent. The significance of ownership and participation has seen increasing recognition in transitional and development scholarship. At its core, this expanding research enterprise addresses questions of agency, power and sustainability. This paper develops a conceptual framework of TRC engagement, through the empirical examination of ex-combatant experiences of participation in Sierra Leone's TRC. Through a qualitative investigation of the experiences of the necessary but neglected ex-combatant population, and drawing from primary interview data and secondary archival material, this paper advances a conceptual framework of TRC engagement, and offers a new avenue for assessing the relationship between those who affect transitional justice, and those affected by it. Conceptual clarity around institutional engagement in TRCs advances a new tool through which to analyse the enterprise of transitional justice, specifically in assessments of power relations between institutions and beneficiaries. Engagement is conceptualized to comprise the elements of ownership, inclusion and participation, and empirically examined through the lens of ex-combatant experiences in the context of Sierra Leone's TRC. Distinguishing between the various dimensions of engagement allows for the identification and isolation of where engagement happens, how it is (and can be) sought, and what it achieves.

This examination offers a new channel through which to analyse Sierra Leone's experiment in restorative and inclusive transitional justice, and the foundations of inclusivity upon which TRCs are built more broadly.

Paper short abstract:

Mobile hearings in the DRC are significant to bring justice to the people in rural and remote areas. However, international actors' dominant role in the operation of mobile hearings creates detrimental consequences for the Congolese legal system which will be discussed in this presentation.

Paper long abstract:

Although gross human rights violations have been taking place in the DRC for over two decades, it was not until 2003 that the first efforts to reform the Congolese legal system were made with assistance coming from international actors to develop capabilities to prosecute perpetrators of sexual violence crimes in conflict. This assistance is intensified in and exemplified by international actors' support of mobile hearings, a legal procedural mechanism within the Congolese legal system. Mobile hearings have an important role in increasing the engagement of local communities with the legal system by boosting the awareness and visibility of formal legal institutions and bolstering trust in the legal system of the DRC through local communities witnessing the prosecution of perpetrators and seeing the attention given to their problems by legal authorities. Although international actors' support of mobile hearings facilitates the prosecution of perpetrators, their dominant role created detrimental consequences for the Congolese legal system and on the prosecution of international crimes in the DRC. This presentation focusses on two consequences: selectivity, where the priorities of international actors have led to a disproportionate number of cases involving sexual violence being investigated compared to other serious crimes, and dependency, which created by not promoting sufficient capacity-building in the Congolese legal system to allow it to operate sustainably. This examination is significant to demonstrate how the Congolese legal system and the prosecution of international crimes in an African context are shaped by the interventions and influences of international actors.

Paper short abstract:

Interrogating law and art inside transitional justice, this paper examines the Marikana Commission from an aesthetic perspective. This allows for the investigation of bodies (dead/living/absent) in place of legalistic documents and offers a different evaluation of transitional justice's efficacy.

Paper long abstract:

On 16th August 2012, the South African Police Service fired live ammunition into a crowd of striking mineworkers on South Africa's platinum belt. Subsequently known as the Marikana Massacre, 34 men were killed that day, with many more severely injured. This paper argues that the Commission of Inquiry, instituted to uncover the truth about that day of violence, is a critical transitional justice moment for South Africa. But globally, law remains at the normative core of most transitional justice mechanisms; and transitional justice remains the dominant field when considering the aftermath of atrocity and violence. This overly legalistic approach to truth-telling after atrocity has been critiqued, with authors labelling such law-full exercises as limiting, providing "thin" justice. This paper suggests that problems with a legalistic approach can be countermanded by examining transitional justice mechanisms from an aesthetic perspective. This perspective can be best interrogated through the analytical framework of the physical body - bodies that are either still living, dead or unaccountably absent from the Marikana Commission.

This aesthetic perspective is identified through recalibrating sensory perception both inside the Marikana Commission and inside the blossoming artistic cannon that uses Marikana as its inspiration. By investigating both law and art from a perspective of bodies, not words, a re-evaluation of conventional transitional justice power dynamics is possible; and a closer examination of the role art plays in transitional justice allows for a more robust interrogation of this discipline's influence on transitional justice.

Paper short abstract:

Reconciliation mechanisms in transitional justice have emerged as a burden to the aggrieved and they ultimately obfuscate the debate on reparations and atonement.

Paper long abstract:

Transitional justice mechanisms have emerged in several dozen African countries since the early 1990s under various forms combining prosecutions, truth-seeking, reconciliation, reparations, or reform of judicial and security systems (ICTJ, 2009). These mechanisms have left a trail of complex legacies. Using a multidisciplinary approach drawn from political science, international law, and postcolonial studies, this paper seeks to critically engage with the idea of reconciliation in truth commissions. It argues that reconciliation mechanisms have emerged as a burden to the aggrieved and they ultimately obfuscate the debate on reparations and atonement. The reconciliation agenda, driven by a hunger for closure and the urge to unburden the memory through a humanistic ethos, also informs the relation between African states and their former colonizers, which resonates with Soyinka (1999)'s criticism of Senghor's negritude as the equivalent of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses TJ working groups as a new phenomenon in TJ praxis in Africa.I argue that besides being a rallying point for TJ, working groups are also zones for knowledge production, human rights advocacy, accountability, memorialization, and a sanctuary for both the perpetrator and victims .

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses transitional justice working groups as a new phenomenon in transitional justice praxis in Africa. It is not uncommon to find the victims of systemic rights abuses turning to international and regional human rights tribunals to address the failure of states to deal with the past human rights violations. These international bodies are most preferred because they are most organized, safe, well-resourced, technically, well-funded and "reliable" after the collapse of the national justice systems. They are trusted because of the international community and the United Nations backing. Their work is fronted by highly experienced international personnel, and enforced by the international military forces and police. While they have been successful, they have been challenged for being remote, too technical, legalistic, and inorganic to the lived realities. International mechanisms have been accused for using templates to addressing the legacy of past violence. In Africa, transitional justice working groups are emerging as the most effective organizing structures the post conflict societies. They have advantages of not cutting the corners, no deals, consult all the stakeholders and can speak truth to power. I discuss the collective action of the transitional justice working groups by reviewing the Working Group Initiative of West Africa, Uganda, South Sudan and of Zimbabwe. I argue that besides being a rallying point for transitional justice actors, working groups have become also zones for knowledge production, human rights advocacy, accountability, memorialization, and a sanctuary where both the perpetrator and victims would meet and find common ground.

Paper short abstract:

Current mechanisms of transitional justice remain distant and insensitive to the needs of people in Africa's relational communities. Using Liberia as a case, this paper explores ways in which the concept of relational justice can address their limitations and complement them.

Paper long abstract:

Ongoing approaches to transitional justice in Africa, crafted under the hegemonic dominance of formal-legal retribution, rarely deliver the kind of justice needed to repair divisions in post-conflict societies. Invariably, the conflicts to which transitional justice measures are applied on the continent occur in relational communities where relationships matter. In such contexts, characterized by strong kinship ties and shared sense of community, it is relational justice, the justice form that transforms damaged relationships, that is sought. This is because injustice is considered as a fundamental source and consequence of broken relationships. Thus, justice is served when remedial actions repair broken and acrimonious relations, restoring ruptured communal unity and harmony. Despite its sensitivity to and relevance for local needs, there is a dearth of empirical research that explores how relational justices might work to promote justice and reconciliation after conflicts. Using Liberia's Palava Hut as a case, this paper makes a case for broadening the concept of transitional justice through a focus on relational justice. The Palava Hut is widely practiced in Liberia's relational communities where it has evolved as an effective mechanism of justice. Its utility as a transitional justice measure will be tested from a relational justice perspective. The paper contends that relational justice can complement and elaborate the efforts of criminal prosecution and truth commissions. Although truth commissions appear as a corrective to the limitations of retributive justice, they usually focus on victims and perpetrators at the expense of the community, while raising questions about their ownership and legitimacy.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the research, policy, practice nexus in African transitional justice debates. It challenges dominant conceptions of what knowledge is used and valued in TJ debates in and on Africa whilst also highlighting the knowledge production practices particular to select African contexts.

Paper long abstract:

Whilst Africa has been described as the transitional justice (TJ) laboratory of the world, knowledge about African TJ processes is said to be produced elsewhere. In addition, in the transitional justice literature the overlapping and rotating roles of researchers, practitioners and policy makers have been variously described, praised and lamented. Trapped within a dominant tradition of 'research objectivity' transitional justice scholarship has also often sought to produce 'objective' research 'from a distance'. In this chapter we will reflect on our team's experiences of positionality and the shifting roles we sometimes inhabit. Drawing on a series of vignettes we will make sense of these experiences within the larger debates on the research, policy, practice nexus in TJ and global politics of knowledge production more generally. Our vignettes 'from the field' draw on data collected from South Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, and the African Union.

There are some indications that in a number of these contexts, rather than seeing overlapping roles as problematic, the ability to learn from practice is considered valuable. Activist, practitioner and research roles are here considered to be mutually beneficial. These seemingly contrasting understandings will be drawn on to better understand how the different knowledge functions and roles of practitioners, researchers and policy-makers are conceptualized, how they conflict and compete but also enrich one another. This paper will thus challenge dominant conceptions of what knowledge is used, valued and legitimized in TJ debates in and on Africa whilst also highlighting the knowledge production practices particular to these contexts.