Justice as peace? Liberal peacebuilding and strategies of transitional justice

Global Society

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 579-591

  Sriram, Chandra Lekha ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT; DECENTRALIZATION; DEMOCRATIZATION; MARKET TRANSITION; PEACE PROCESS; PEACEKEEPING; SOCIAL JUSTICE;

EID: 35048862267     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820701562843     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Roland Paris, "Peacebuilding and the Limits of Liberal Internationalism", International Security, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Fall 1997), pp. 54-89
2. idem, At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
3. Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000)
4. Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder, "Democratization and the Danger of War", International Security, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1995), pp. 5-38.
5. See generally Mahmood Monshipouri, Democratization, Liberalization, and Human Rights in the Third World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995).
6. Jack Snyder and Robert Jervis, "Civil War and the Security Dilemma", in Barbara F. Walter and Jack Snyder (eds.), Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 15-37
7. Barry R. Posen, "The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict", Survival, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 27-47.
8. Stephen D. Krasner, "Sharing Sovereignty: New Institutions for Collapsed and Failing States", International Security, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 85-120, proposes that neo-trusteeship arrangements or sovereignty sharing may be necessary in some instances, although his focus is ostensibly not upon countries concluding peace agreements, but failing and failed states.
9. These "strategies of transition" are discussed at length in Chandra Lekha Sriram, Confronting Past Human Rights Violations (London: Frank Cass, 2004), pp. 206-207 and passim.
10. Paris, "Peacebuilding", op. cit., p. 56.
11. See generally Michael Doyle, "Liberalism andWorld Politics", American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 4 (December 1986), pp. 1151-1169
12. Anne-Marie Slaughter, "International Law in a World of Liberal States", European Journal of International Law, Vol. 6 (1995), pp. 53-81
13. cf. José E. Alvarez, "Do Liberal States Behave Better? A Critique of Slaughter's Liberal Theory", European Journal of International Law Vol. 12 (2001), pp. 183-246.
14. Ted Gurr, Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1993), p. 138.
15. Roland Paris, At War's End (pp. 112-134), discusses this issue in peacebuilding operations in Central America. I have noted elsewhere that these peacebuilding missions may not only have failed to address the underlying sources of conflict but in many instances have also failed to cope with continuing political and social conflict, treating it as mere "criminality".
16. Chandra Lekha Sriram, "Dynamics of Conflict in Central America", in Chandra Lekha Sriram and Zoe Nielsen, Exploring Subregional Conflict: Opportunities for Conflict Prevention (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004), pp. 131-167.
17. See, for example, Frances Stewart, "Policies towards Horizontal Inequalities in Post-conflict Reconstruction" (n.d.), available: accessed 3 June 2006).
18. For a critique of the push for rapid elections, see Simon Chesterman, You, The People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-building (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 204-235.
19. Paris, At War's End, op. cit., pp. 44-46, elaborates upon this point, developed previously by Snyder and Mansfield and discussed above.
20. Paris, At War's End, op. cit., pp. 75-76.
21. Ibid., pp. 179-211.
22. Key sources, from which this discussion is drawn, include Priscilla Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity (London: Routledge, 2001)
23. Carla Hesse and Robert Post (eds.), Human Rights in Political Transitions: Gettysburg to Bosnia (New York: Zone Books, 1999)
24. Jaime Malamud-Goti, Game without End: State Terror and the Politics of Justice (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996)
25. Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998)
26. Aryeh Neier, War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror, and the Struggle for Justice (New York: Times Books, 1998)
27. Mark Osiel, Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory, and the Law (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1997)
28. Rama Mani, Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002)
29. Naomi Roht-Arriaza (ed.), Impunity and Human Rights in International Law and Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
30. Robert I. Rotberg and Dennis Thompson (eds.), Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
31. Chandra Lekha Sriram, Confronting Past Human Rights Violations, op. cit.
32. Paul R. Williams and Michael P. Scharf, Peace with Justice? War Crimes and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)
33. Neil J. Kritz (ed.), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, 3 Vols. (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1995).
34. I have considered the development of transitional justice literature and debates over the past few decades in Chandra Lekha Sriram, "Transitional Justice Comes of Age: Enduring Lessons and Challenges", Berkeley Journal of International Law, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2005), pp. 506-523.
35. Neier, War Crimes, op. cit.
36. Osiel, Mass Atrocity, op. cit.
37. Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, op. cit.
38. See Elizabeth M. Cousens and Chetan Kumar, with Karin Wermester (eds.), Peacebuilding as Politics: Cultivating Peace in Fragile Societies (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001)
39. John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1997)
40. cf. a critique of the traditional assumptions of peacebuilding in Paris, "Peacebuilding and the Limits of Liberal Internationalism", op. cit.
41. Ian Johnstone, Rights and Reconciliation: UN Strategies in El Salvador (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995)
42. Malamud-Goti, Game without End, op. cit.
43. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths, op. cit.
44. Rotberg and Thompson (eds.), Truth v. Justice, op. cit.
45. Osiel, Mass Atrocity, op. cit.
46. Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies. Report of the Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/2004/616 (23 August 2004)
47. see also (accessed 28 August 2007).
48. Chandra Lekha Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities: A Revolution in Accountability (London: Routledge, 2005), ch. 6 and conclusion
49. Mahnoush H. Arsanjani and W. Michael Reisman, "The Law in Action of the International Criminal Court", American Journal of International Law Vol. 99 (April 2005), pp. 385-403
50. Daryl A. Mundis, "Closing an International Criminal Tribunal While Maintaining International Human Rights Standards and Excluding Impunity", American Journal of International Law, Vol. 99 (January 2005), pp. 142-158.
51. Cf. Christian Eckart, "Saddam Hussein's Trial in Iraq: Legitimacy and Alternatives, a Legal Analysis", Cornell Law School Paper Series, Ithaca, NY (2006), available: (accessed 28 August 2007). Clearly these responses have been taken by very different sets of actors and have differing degrees of legitimacy, which for reasons of space I do not address here.
52. These are not the full range of reasons offered: Others such as the needs of victims may be adduced for accountability, and the need to entrench a nascent democracy may also be offered as a reason to abandon accountability. See Sriram, Confronting Past Human Rights Violations op. cit., introduction and ch. 2, for a discussion of these and illustrations from a myriad of cases.
53. In many instances, countries choose several of these options simultaneously, or serially. See Sriram, Confronting Past Human Rights Violations, op. cit., ch. 2.
54. Ibid., ch. 1 and conclusion, discusses these strategies.
55. Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities, op. cit., ch. 6, discusses this in more detail.
56. On the restoration of the rule of law and conflict prevention and peacebuilding policies, see Chandra Lekha Sriram, "Discourses of Prevention and Rule of Law: Rhetoric and Reality", in Agnes Hurwitz with Reyko Huang (eds.), Rule of Law Programming in Conflict Management (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, forthcoming 2007).
57. Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-conflict Societies, op. cit.
58. See descriptive page at (accessed 28 August 2007).
59. For example, a recent in-house summary of work in conflict prevention and reconstruction primarily included work in development, reconstruction and mine clearance, but it also included work on the rule of law. See World Bank, Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction (CPR) Unit, "CPR and Related Publications on Conflict and Development", available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
60. See descriptive page at: (accessed 28 August 2007).
61. See generally Reyko Huang, Securing the Rule of Law: Assessing Strategies for Post-conflict Criminal Justice, Policy Report (New York: International Peace Academy, November 2005), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
62. This may particularly be the case if reparations are part of the transitional justice process. See discussion of the project on reparations at the International Center for Transitional Justice, available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
63. See generally, on the causes of conflict, and human rights violations in conflict and peacebuilding processes, Chandra Lekha Sriram and KarinWermester (eds), From Promise to Practice: Strengthening UN Capacities for the Prevention of Violent Conflict (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), ch. 2
64. Michelle Parlevliet, "Bridging the Divide. Exploring the Relationship between Human Rights and Conflict Management", Track Two, Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2002), Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, available: (accessed 28 August 2007)
65. Ellen Lutz, Eileen F. Babbitt and Hurst Hannum, "Human Rights and Conflict Resolution from the Practitioners' Perspectives", Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Winter/Spring 2003), available: (accessed 28 August 2007)
66. Hurst Hannum, "Human Rights and Conflict Resolution: The Role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in UN Peacemaking and Peacebuilding", Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1 2006, pp. 1-85
67. Tanya Putnam, "Human Rights and Sustainable Peace", in Stephen J. Stedman, Donald Rothchild and Elizabeth Cousens (eds.), Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002), pp. 237-273
68. Christine Bell, Peace Agreements and Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
69. and Human Rights Watch, Human Rights and Armed Conflict (2004), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
70. See generally Eric Stover and HarveyWeinstein (eds.), My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
71. Roger Cohen, "To his Death in Jail, Milosevic Exalted Image of Serb Suffering", New York Times (12 March 2006), p. A1
72. Gabriel Partos, "Serb Nationalists Still a Force" (14 March 2006), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
73. Chandra Lekha Sriram, "Wrong-sizing International Justice? The Hybrid Tribunal in Sierra Leone", Fordham International Law Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2006), pp. 472-506.
74. Jaime Malamud-Goti, Game without End, op. cit.
75. See Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities, op. cit. ch. 3.
76. On the link between transitional justice and the development of long-term rule of law and democracy, see Ruti Teitel, Transitional Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
77. On the weakness of power sharing or decentralisation as an interim stabilisation solution, see the contributions to Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild (eds.), Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005). While the former is clearly linked to democratisation, power-sharing arrangements are often really meant to be institutionalised protections against the destabilising effects of democratisation and, particularly, ethnic outbidding.
78. Snyder and Jervis, "Civil War and the Security Dilemma", op. cit.
79. Posen, "The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict", op. cit.
80. The contentious nature of the debate over a revised Iraqi Constitution is one salient example. See, for example, Bernard Finel, "Iraqis Prepare for Vote on Constitution", transcript of comments, Washington Post (13 October 2005), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
81. On the political nature of peacebuilding and challenges for Western peacebuilders in unfamiliar political cultures, see Elizabeth Cousens, "Introduction", in Cousens and Kumar, with Wermester (eds.), Peacebuilding as Politics, op. cit.
82. See, for example, Human Rights Watch's page on International Justice, emphasising the necessity of justice generally, and promoting the option of international justice where justice is not feasible domestically: (accessed 28 August 2007)
83. the Amnesty International site makes similar points: >http://web.amnesty.org/pages/jus-index-eng> (accessed 28 August 2007).
84. Owen Alterman, Aneta Binienda, Sophie Rodella and Kimyia Varzi, "The Law People See: The Status of Dispute Resolution in the Provinces of Sierra Leone in 2002", National Forum for Human Rights, Freetown (2002), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
85. Sriram, "Wrong-sizing International Justice?", op. cit.
86. Alterman et al., "The Law People See", op. cit.
87. Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities, op. cit., ch. 6.
88. Because of these concerns, the Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, invited a delegation of Acholi leaders to discuss these topics and reassure them that local amnesties and traditional justice processes would not be affected. "Statement by ICC Chief Prosecutor and the Visiting Delegation of Acholi Leaders from Northern Uganda" (18 March 2005), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
89. Sriram, Globalizing Justice for Mass Atrocities, op. cit., ch. 5.
90. Robert Walker, "Rwanda Still Searching for Justice" (30 March 2004), available: (accessed 28 August 2007).
91. See the discussion of problems with gacaca courts by Human Rights Watch at (accessed 28 August 2007).