Addressing the harms of climate change
FriEnt together with the Berghof Foundation and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) co-organised a dialogue event on “the challenges and opportunities of providing remedies for the loss and damage that climate change is causing”. The trail of devastation that climate change is causing not only poses a vital threat to […]
Integrating transitional justice and sustainable development
The UN Secretary General has published a new Guidance Note on Tranisitonal Justice, which prominently positions transitional justice as a “cross-cutting policy area” within the UN’s peacebuilding and sustainable development landscape. This Guidance Note and a new report by the Working Group on Transitional Justice and SDG16+ seek to align transitional justice and development. A […]
Beyond box-ticking
At an event of the Transitional Justice Hub practitioners from around the world met policy-makers to discuss how people-centred transitional justice can contribute to building sustainable peace. Truth commission – check. Criminal procedures – check. Security sector reform – check. Peace – check? In the early years of its emergence in the 1990s, transitional justice […]
Schweigen ist nicht Gold
Bei einer Friedensaktion des ZFD-Partners Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) besuchten Überlebende und Veteranen aller ehemaligen Konfliktparteien gemeinsam mit Friedensaktivistinnen und Journalisten Orte in Bosnien und Herzegowina, an denen im Krieg schreckliche Verbrechen geschahen. Es ging um Gedenken, Aufarbeitung und Versöhnung in dem Land, in dem Veranstaltungen dieser Art nicht immer gern gesehen, aber wichtige […]
Transitional Justice muss Frauen in den Mittelpunkt stellen
Nach dem Ende von gewaltsamen Konflikten unterscheidet sich das Leben der Menschen auf geschlechtsspezifische Weise. Während Männer in der Regel Machtpositionen zurückerobern, bleiben Frauen oft in prekären Lebensumständen. Maßnahmen zur Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit – auch als „Transitional Justice“ bekannt – dürfen sich daher nicht damit begnügen, eine Gesellschaft auf den Status quo ante zurückzuführen. Sie […]
Property rights don’t recover themselves
Restitution of housing and property related to forced displacement is at the core of many political debates on transitional justice. Does transitional justice provide a sufficient basis for understanding how to best respond to property claims following military conflict? And what kind of assistance programs are applied in an unrecognized state experiencing wartime? Eviya Hovhannisyan […]
Collecting testimony and transitional justice in Ukraine
Ukraine is probably the first where evidence of war crimes is being gathered even while the war still rages. A number of highly professional, independent, civil society-led initiatives have been launched to collect legally admissible testimony. The Berghof Foundation hosted a one-day hybrid symposium on 14 September: Ukraine testifies to exchange best practices and discuss […]
The Local Dimension Matters
By seeking justice via courts and truth commissions, emphasis is usually put on high-level perpetrators. It tends to be forgotten, however, that also national-level violence and its consequences are lived on a local dimension in cities and neighborhoods. While remembering might be practiced nationally, locally, practices of silence can persist. Which steps need to be […]
Die Zukunft von Transitional Justice
Russlands Invasion der Ukraine hat uns einmal mehr ins Bewusstsein gerufen, dass viele autoritäre Regime im großen Maßstab Menschenrechte brechen. Gleichzeitig haben weltweit Länder unterschiedlich erfolgreich begonnen, ihre gewaltsame Vergangenheit aufzuarbeiten. Dies macht Transitional Justice Prozesse so relevant wie eh und je. Der “Global Learning Hub for Transistional Justice and Reconcilation” hatte zum Debattieren dieser […]
Can we learn from Ukraine to prevent future escalations?
What is happening in the fields of Ukraine, becomes a reason not to abandon the project of transitional justice, but a challenge to envision routes toward it. Instead of focusing on discrete scenarios, we may need to examine what lays beyond the current center of attention. Truth-telling based on comprehensive documentation as well as establishing […]
