Afraid to Cry Wolf: Human Rights Activists’ Struggle of Transnational Accountability Efforts in the Balkans

Kurze, Arnaud; Vukušić, Iva

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-5422-9_12

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…A power politics approach attributed norm adoption to the assertion of power by the RECOM's leading NGOs (Rowen 2012, 705-708). Exploring the substance of debates, scholars drew attention to divisive inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic positions in this multi-ethnic network (Irvine and MacMahon 2013;Kostovicova 2010), the rejection of concepts, such as truth and reconciliation (Touquet and Vermeersch 2016, 65-68), and the discussions over definitions, such as that of a victim (Kurze and Vukusic 2013). Lastly, scholars revealed domestic opposition to inter-ethnic cross-border collaboration in justice-seeking (Kostovicova 2013;Di Lellio and McCunn 2013).…”

Section: The Recom Network In the Balkans: The Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Norm contestation and reconciliation: evidence from a regional transitional justice process in the Balkans

Kostovicova¹,

Bicquelet²

2020

Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict

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We have limited understanding of how ethnic groups can achieve an agreement on tackling the legacy of war crimes, because transitional justice scholars have been focused primarily on challenges to post-conflict reconciliation. Addressing this gap, we investigate whether contestation over the norm of transitional justice prevents inter-ethnic reconciliation, operationalized by us as reconciliatory discourse. Empirical evidence is drawn from the study of debates conducted by a transnational advocacy network (RECOM), which proposes a regional fact-finding commission in the Balkans. Applying text analysis to identify key themes in these debates, we find reconciliatory discourse in those debates where there is norm contestation. Also, the spatial scale of a transitional justice process matters. We identify different patterns of discourse at different levels of debates. Debates containing 2 norm contestation are associated with ethnically-centered arguments at the national level, but with sustained scrutiny of proposed solutions at the regional level despite ethnic divisions.CONTACT Denisa Kostovicova d.kostovicova@lse.ac.uk @DenisaKost Reconciliation is broadly understood as societal transformation in the aftermath of conflict (Chapman, 2009), yet there remains a lack of scholarly consensus on the concept's precise meaning, on the different levels of reconciliation, or how to achieve it (Pankhurst 1999). As Kriesberg (2001, 60) notes, "[r]econciliation is never total, never including all members of antagonistic parties, not including every dimension of reconciliation completely, nor being fully reciprocal between parties." While recognizing the ambiguity of the concept in theory and practice, we approach reconciliation as a discursive process, rather than an outcome.More precisely, we define reconciliation as a steady process of overcoming "obstacles presented by -among other things -culture, race, religion and politics" through communication (Komesaroff 2008, 5). Cohen (2001, 238) specifies that "[w]hen rhetoric of reconciliation is genuine, it looks for tolerance, forgiveness, social reconstruction and solution of social conflicts in ways other than punishment." Although reconciliation may not ever be total, it still represents "a radical way of confronting the past (Ibid., 239)." In this article, we investigate whether contestation of the norm of transitional justice is at odds with reconciliation understood as reconciliatory discourse.We explore the effects of norm contestation by examining the process of norm adoption in transnational activist networks (TANs). Empirical evidence is drawn from a regional civil society network in the Balkans, known by its acronym RECOM, which advocates the establishment of a regional fact-finding commission. Norm adoption is an understudied aspect of network activity (Carpenter 2011), in contrast to later stages in a norm "life cycle" (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998), such as diffusion of norms (Carpenter 2007, 101). We are guided by the 'local turn' in the scholarship on transitional...

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Section: The Recom Network In the Balkans: The Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Norm contestation and reconciliation: evidence from a regional transitional justice process in the Balkans

Kostovicova¹,

Bicquelet²

2020

Rethinking Reconciliation and Transitional Justice After Conflict

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“…Truth-telling ▪ Mutually exclusive public 'truths' about the past is often considered to be a key hindrance to reconciliation Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Subotic, 2015;Kurze & Vukusic, 2013).…”

Section: Impacts Of Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Mechanisms And Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Public 'truths' about the past in the Western Balkans are mutually exclusive and contradictory, influenced by nationalist discourses of political actors, with each side trying to impose its own version of the past as the legitimate one (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020;Subotic, 2015;Kurze & Vukusic, 2013). While this is considered to be a key hindrance to reconciliation, there is limited research on the impact of such contradictory narratives (Bešić & Džuverović, 2020).…”

Section: Truth-tellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

Haider¹

2021

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Countries in the Western Balkans have engaged in various transitional justice and reconciliation initiatives to address the legacy of the wars of the 1990s and the deep political and societal divisions that persist. There is growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that in order to foster meaningful change, transitional justice must extend beyond trials (the dominant international mechanism in the region) and be more firmly anchored in affected communities with alternative sites, safe spaces, and modes of engagement. This rapid literature review presents a sample of initiatives, spanning a range of sectors and fields – truth-telling, art and culture, memorialisation, dialogue and education – that have achieved a level of success in contributing to processes of reconciliation, most frequently at the community level. It draws primarily from recent studies, published in the past five years. Much of the literature available centres on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with some examples also drawn from Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

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“…While building on the strength of civil society activism and expertise in its multiple layers of addressing the injustice of the violent past, RECOM also must rely on state institutions in order to make its recommendations official and hence, truly meaningful and broadly transformative. RECOM has already been hampered by internal obstacles within the organizational structure of the broader human rights movement for which it is not equipped and should probably not supplant investigative prosecutorial efforts of the state (Kurze & Vukusic, 2013). At the same time, what the region needs is change in public remembrance practices, education policies, and enforcement of transitional justice mechanisms, all changes that need to come from state agencies in order to be implemented (Irvine & McMahon, 2013).…”

Section: Existing Efforts-recom and Textbook Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembrance, Public Narratives, and Obstacles to Justice in the Western Balkans

Subotić

2013

SSJ

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Afraid to Cry Wolf: Human Rights Activists’ Struggle of Transnational Accountability Efforts in the Balkans

Cited by 17 publications

References 11 publications

Norm contestation and reconciliation: evidence from a regional transitional justice process in the Balkans

Norm contestation and reconciliation: evidence from a regional transitional justice process in the Balkans

Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Western Balkans: Approaches, Impacts and Challenges

Remembrance, Public Narratives, and Obstacles to Justice in the Western Balkans

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