Transitional justice is a process of accountability, recognition, reconciliation, and redress for human rights violations in newly democratizing nations. It includes truth commissions, reparations, and reform of military, police, and judiciary. The concept emerged in the late 1980s during political uprisings against authoritarian regimes in Latin America and Eastern Europe. It continues to evolve as it is applied to changing circumstances.
Transitional justice is the process of accountability, recognition, reconciliation and redress adopted by newly democratizing nations after a period of political upheaval that led to widespread human rights violations. It is a term related to the notion of transitional democracy, which refers to the emergence of a nation from a repressive regime into the early stages of a fledgling democracy. The core concepts have been put into practice to address war crimes, ethnic cleansing, gender-based violence, and other instances of military and government institutions turning against civilian populations.
The notion of transitional justice has roots in World War II and the prosecution of the Nazis for war crimes and the mass genocide of the Jewish people. However, it was not until the late 1980s, during the multiple political uprisings against authoritarian regimes in Latin America and Eastern Europe, that the term “transitional justice” became popular in the international community. The term has come to identify the process of attempting to heal civilian populations who had been subjected to atrocious human rights violations.
One of the key moments in the development of this doctrine was the 1988 decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the question of Honduras which established the obligation of States to engage in four basic actions regarding human rights violations. The court held that states were responsible for preventing human rights violations, conducting serious investigations when rights violations were suspected, imposing sanctions and reparation for victims. As a result of crystallizing these obligations, it was able to develop an effective methodology.
Through studying the processes that operated in countries such as Honduras, Chile and South Africa, the international community has identified some of the central elements of a system capable of providing redress to abused people. Transitional justice includes establishing a truth commission to help expose human rights abuses and prosecute those responsible. It also includes reparations for victims providing monetary assistance and an apology, reform of the military, police and judiciary, and public commemoration of the tragedy.
Political upheavals are becoming more common around the world, and the doctrine of transitional justice has gained prominence in international law. The process was approved by the European Court of Human Rights and formed the basis of the decisions reached by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Transitional justice, however, is not static and continues to evolve as it is applied to changing circumstances.
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