Browsing by Subject "transitional justice"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Archiving Memory after Mass Atrocities
(The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, 2012-04) Ciorciari, John D.
Archiving and disseminating records of past atrocities is crucial in societies emerging from periods of conflict or repressive rule. It advances victims’ “right to the truth” and promotes broader social goals of accountability and historical truth. This working paper explores legal and policy issues that arise when collections of documents pertaining to past atrocities are discovered in societies emerging from civil war, state collapse, or dire misrule. It argues for a foundational approach to documentation focused on sound archival methodology and the application of a transparent set of norms as fairly as possible to build a credible base for accountability and accurate historical memory. The paper considers the difficult questions of who should lead such efforts, how the interests of preservation and dissemination can best be advanced, and how to deal with concerns pertaining to privacy and national security. To develop the argument for a foundational approach, the paper draws on examples from a number of cases, including Cambodia, Guatemala, Iraq, Paraguay, Serbia, and others.
False Dichotomies of Transitional Justice: Gender, Conflict and Combatants in Colombia
(The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, 2011-02) Tabak, Shana
In Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict, between one-fourth to one-third of combatants are women. This paper addresses the problem of reintegrating female combatants in Colombia’s violent conflict into civil society after they have left armed groups. It argues that many transitional justice mechanisms rely on the notion that certain dichotomies exist between an era of conflict and a post-conflict era. Reflecting on the experiences of female combatants, this paper exposes those dichotomies as inaccurate reflections of the realities of many individuals affected by conflict. In doing so, it aims to synthesize contemporary feminist scholarly work on transitional justice with detailed research on gender in Colombia. This paper traces the evolution of feminist thinking on transitional justice mechanisms: a first generation focused on developing international criminal law to recognize the special character of sex crimes against women; a second generation was concerned that women in post-conflict societies may not consider that sexual violence is the most serious harm that they suffer, when compared to the murder of their children or the destruction of their communities; and finally, a third generation of scholars now caution that women during conflicts often, paradoxically, experience greater autonomy and less domestic violence than the post-conflict status quo. It then contributes to the existing feminist scholarship on transitional justice by examining the additional complication of women who may have suffered the horrors of conflict, but who have also been perpetrators of some of these horrors. Utilizing detailed research on the experiences of both Colombian women and men, it critiques transitional justice approaches from a gender-oriented perspective, and seeks to imagine what a gender-inclusive strategy might look like in Colombia.
Struggles and Obstacles in Indigenous Women's Fight for Justice in Guatemala
(LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, 2016) Velásquez Nimatuj, Irma Alicia