Environmental destruction can act as both a source and consequence of conflict, atrocity, and repression. From resource extraction as a means of funding conflict to the deliberate destruction of habitats relied upon by targeted communities, violence and the environment have a complex relationship which extends far beyond the cessation of hostilities. It is therefore notable that environmental harms are often unseen and under-theorised in the context of transitional justice. This chapter explores this historical invisibility and considers what a turn towards a 'green' transitional justice might look like. To do so, it draws connections between critical transitional justice scholarship and the growing field of green criminology, which has sought to challenge the anthropocentrism of dominant framings of crime and harm. In particular, the chapter explores transitional justice's 'dominance of legalism', neocolonial tendencies and 'liberal imprints', and interrogates their implications for the visibility of environmental harm.
The relationship between the environment and mass violence is complex and multi-faceted. The effects of environmental degradation can destabilize societies and cause conflict. Attacks on the environment can harm targeted groups, and both mass violence and subsequent transitions can have harmful environmental legacies. Given this backdrop, it is notable that the field of transitional justice has paid relatively little attention to the intersections between mass violence and environmental degradation. This article interrogates this inattention and explores the limitations and possibilities of transitional justice as a means of addressing the environmental harms associated with mass violence. The article makes four key claims. First, that the "dominance of legalism" in transitional justice has produced anthropocentric understandings of harm which exclude environmental harms and victims. Second, that transitional justice’s tendency towards neo-colonialism has led to the disregarding of worldviews that might encourage more environmentally inclusive responses to violence. Third, that transitional justice’s inability to redress structural inequalities has often left environmental injustices intact. And fourth, that the field’s complicity in normalizing neoliberal capitalism both overlooks environmental harm and facilitates future environmental degradation. In light of these claims, the article considers whether, and where opportunities might exist, for "greener" responses to mass violence.
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