Searching for Truth in the Transitional Justice Movement

Abstract

Searching for Truth in the Transitional Justice Movement examines calls for a truth commission to redress the brutal war during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the decades-long armed conflict in Colombia, and US detention policies in the War on Terror. In so doing, it argues that transitional justice is an idea around which a loosely structured movement emerged and professionalized, making truth commissions a standard response to mass violence. By exploring how this movement developed, as well as efforts to make truth commissions in the Balkans, Colombia, and the US, this book explains different processes through which political actors translate new legal ideas such as transitional justice into political action. Further, it reveals how the malleability of transitional justice and truth commissions is both an asset and a liability for those hoping to ensure accountability, improve survivor well-being, and prevent future violence.

Moving Beyond Formal Truth Practices and Forensic Truth in the Syrian Conflict: How Informal Truth Practices Contribute to Thicker Understandings of Truth

“…This tendency towards legalism in transitional justice has manifested itself in a 'prosecutorial preference', i.e., the prioritization of criminal justice (Obel Hansen, 2017), the dominance of legal scholars and practitioners in the field (Fletcher and Weinstein, 2017), and the prevalence of large institutionalized mechanisms underpinned by the familiar legal or forensic approaches of bringing to light factual, corroborated evidence, and of obtaining accurate information through reliable (impartial, objective) procedures (Fournet, 2020). This legalism thus affected the mainstream understanding of truth in transitional justice, meaning that even if truth is arguably the element undergirding all other transitional justice processes, the narrow understanding of forensic truth became prevalent in these legal approaches (Rowen, 2017).…”

Truth Commission Impact on Policy, Courts, and Society

“…If the model of forensic investigation and publication of facts embodied in truth commissions is indeed a complement to prosecutions, as an increasing number of scholars suggest, then they can be said to contribute to the rule of law by denting the culture of impunity (Rowen 2017a). Similarly, the publication of facts about human rights violations may weaken actors with potentially illiberal and undemocratic agendas.…”