Search results

Any country which attempts to establish accountability for past abuses of human rights during the process of democratization faces political, judicial, and ethical problems. With regard to politics, the question of which transitional justice measures are appropriate, functional, and feasible has to be decided for every individual case. A judicial approach has to decide which judicial standards to apply and how to justify prosecution. Finally, the ethical dilemmas of dealing with historical injustices have to be understood. There are no ready-made concepts to define guilt and justice. In many cases it is even difficult to tell the victims from the perpetrators. This study examines the different strategies subsumed under the term 'transitional justice' used by emerging democracies to deal with a legacy of human rights abuses. It explores the problems and challenges posed by different mechanisms of reconciliation and societal reintegration. While existing analyses of the contribution that transitional justice measures make to the process of social re-integration stress the importance of consensus among citizens and social groups for the emergence of trust and solidarity, this study suggests also thinking about how conflicts over competing 'truths' can help to build social capital and reconciliation. Noting a global diffusion of international legal norms, which means at least formal universal acceptance of basic rights and judicial procedures, it is argued that international justice cannot be a substitute for transitional justice measures taken by the domestic regime itself. Adapted from the source document.

The article argues that every society has to find its own way to cope with the past. This can only be understood under the premise that the constructive process to find ways to represent the past in a traumatized society is a goal in & of itself & that it seems to be more essential than the result. The article distinguishes between different forms of the political, legal, & cultural shaping of collective memory & argues that moral thoughts & shared understandings are culturally encoded & depend on different factors. This leads to the question whether the memory of mass atrocities might pave the way for a collective memory. 35 References. Adapted from the source document.