The dissertation examines transitional justice mechanisms implemented in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. The question of how to deal with the legacies of communist repression has been an important source of political divisions in the region. The post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe had an array of choices to consider when addressing demands for retrospective justice: from criminal prosecution of important officials, to restitution of property, or declassifying of secret files for public inspection. The two most common paths taken in the region have consisted of lustration laws and the decisions surrounding public access to secret police files. Lustration laws involve the disqualification of certain categories of former communist officials and secret police collaborators from public positions under the new regime. The dissertation explores differences in lustration laws and access to secret files across four cases that represent variation along a spectrum of outcomes: the Czech Republic having the strongest type of lustration, Poland and Hungary having a weaker form, and Romania lacking institutionalized lustration. The extant literature has focused on instances where such laws have been instituted, but has little to say about cases where it failed. The dissertation pays special attention to the case of Romania, with the goal of explaining its failure to enact lustration in spite of repeated attempts. The analysis is organized in two main sections. The first evaluates the existing patterns of lustration in the region. The second offers an in-depth analysis of the understudied case of Romania with the intent of filling the vacant niche in the existing literature. Primary sources examined include the proposed projects of lustration laws, the final drafts of laws, parliamentary debates and media reports on the issue. The dissertation concludes that differences in lustration patterns can be fully explained only by simultaneously considering the impact of several factors: the pervasiveness of security apparatus during the last phase of communist rule, the type of regime change, and the extent to which political actors embraced the lustration agenda.

Magister Legum - LLM / This mini-thesis makes a claim that when Rwanda established the rule of Gacaca court system as a communal mechanism of transitional justice in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, it accordingly enabled space for the ‘social truth’ to take centre stage as opposed to the legal truth. As such, testimonies by perpetrators and accounts by witnesses could only be permissible in Gacaca courts if they were socially acceptable by the community, and any evidence only needed to be orally validated by community members but not verified through formal legal procedures. The principal objective of this mini-thesis, therefore, is to examine how the ‘social truth’ was employed by Gacaca courts and how this kind of truth resonated with the communal nature of the courts.

Transitional justice as a research field has for a long time only focused on countries in conflict. However, even established democracies can undergo a process of change and reconciliationprocesses, including the reconciliation process between the Sami and Sweden. The purpose of the study is to map the process of establishing the Truth Commission for the Sami people, and to analyze this process based on central concepts of transitional justice. To examine whether these concepts are suitable for analyzing processes of reconciliation in established democracies. The central concepts of reconciliation, truth, justice, mercy, and peace have thus been used as a theoretical framework to analyze the process of establishing the Truth Commission in Sweden through a qualitative content analysis. The finding show that the theoretical framework cannot fully explain and understand processes of reconciliation in established democracies. Adevelopment of the research field of transitional justice is needed to be able to apply it to the context of established democracies.

Thesis advisor: Ingu Hwang / Transitional justice (TJ) measures such as amnesty and lustration laws, truth commissions, and reparation programs have been widely utilized worldwide in an effort to come to terms with dark pasts and mass atrocities. However, these measures have had varying levels of success, which begs the question: how successful really is TJ in enacting the change that needs to take place? To answer this question, an analysis into the imagination and implementation of TJ, its globalization and localization, and its relationship with democratization is conducted. Case studies include TJ measures in South Korea, Chile, Albania, and Rwanda and includes multilingual primary and secondary sources such as government reports, presidential speeches, academic and legal journals, museums, protest picket signs, literature, documentaries, and news articles. It is concluded that TJ measures are both successful and unsuccessful, which depends on (1) a desire from the people, (2) a balance between global and local efforts, and (3) whether one or multiple TJ measures are employed simultaneously. Specific policy and field recommendations are outlined at the end. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: International Studies.

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Transitional Justice bezeichnet staatliche Anstrengungen um vergangene Menschenrechtsverletzungen am Ende von Represionen aufzuarbeiten. Reparationszahlungen an die Opfer, die eines der Hauptinstrumente staatlicher Aufarbeitung darstellen können, blieben in der Transitional Justice-Literatur vergleichweise unerforscht. Dieses Buch versucht diese Lücke zu schließen und fragt, warum manche Staaten solche Programme eingeleitet haben, während andere junge Demokratien darauf verzichteten. Dabei setzt sie Reparationszahlungen in den Kontext anderer Transitional Justice-Maßnahmen und greift gleichzeitig zwei Haupterklärungsansätze für gerichtliche Verfahren und Wahrheitskommissionen auf. In diesem Zusammenhang ist die Frage, inwieweit Transitional Justice aus moralischer Überzeugung oder aus taktischem Kalkül der neuen Eliten eingeleitet wurde. In dem die Arbeit diese Frage am Beispiel der Zahlung von Entschädigungsleistungen diskutiert, kann sie auch Aussagen darüber machen, wie valide die bestehenden Erklärungsansätze für Transitional Justice sind. Anhand der südamerikanischen Regimewechsel in den 1980ern wird aufgezeigt, dass Reparationszahlungen oft zur Legitimation von Amnestien verwendet wurden. Wenn Täter und Opfer relativ starkes Drohpotential besaßen, versuchten Regierungen den Opfern durch Entschädigung entgegenzukommen um Amnestien für die Täter bei gleichzeitiger Anerkennung der Taten zu rechtfertigen. Entschädigungszahlungen wurden somit oft aus strategischen Erwägungen geleistet, was man bei der normativen Bewertung dieser Programme berücksichtigen sollte. / Transitional justice refers to approaches that states use to address past human rights violations at the end of violence and repression. Providing reparations to victims, which can be understood as one of the main instruments of Transitional Justice, has so far received relatively little attention in the Transitional Justice literature. This book tries to fill this gap and asks why some states chose to implement reparation programs while others did not. Putting reparations into context this book adapts explanations for the realization of trials and truth commissions and asks whether they also hold for reparations. The main question is, whether state elites chose Transitional Justice mechanisms for moral or tactical reasons. Hence, by analyzing reparations this book can also help us to reappraise the validity of popular explanations for other Transitional Justice mechanisms. Studying the democratic transitions in South America in the 1980ies this book shows that reparations were often paid to justify amnesty decisions for the perpetrators. When perpetrators and victims posed a credible threat for the incumbents, they implemented reparation programs while crimes of the past went unpunished. In most cases reparations were paid due to tactical convenience rather than moral commitment, which should be considered when we evaluate the concept of reparations.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration – Peace Studies, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Zimbabwe is in dire need of wholesale reform. Gross human rights violations which date back to the pre-colonial period could have been abated in 1980 when the magnanimous policy of national reconciliation promised a new start. The watershed opportunity was, however, lost mainly because no deliberate efforts were made to account for the wrongs of the past in order to start afresh. The result was that Zimbabwe won the independence, but peace remained elusive. This is evidenced in the continued instability, insecurity and uncertainty. The non-retributive pledge had inherent weaknesses; it lacked inclusive participation, hence, no broad ownership. Simply drawing a line between the wounded past and the present, meant burying the past without the prerequisite rituals bent on ensuring non-recurrence. The futility of this blanket amnesty is evident in the sustained legacy of gross human rights abuses and impunity. Political violence has been institutionalised through politicisation of all aspects of life. This research is guided by Lederach’s reconciliation theory which uses Psalms 85:10 to emphasise the importance of commitment in converging the seemingly divergent aspects of truth, peace, justice and mercy into a ‘meeting place’ called reconciliation. Using a mixed methods approach, this research established that the invariably top-bottom approaches massage the symptoms rather than address the root causes of conflicts. The victims’ agitations for revenge and retribution prompted me to design action research processes aimed at engaging the research participants in interactive activities. The action research component aimed at sensitising participants to the merits of letting go of the burdens of the past, and to use scars as reminders of hope and not victimhood. The issues of forgiveness without apology, compensation or even remorse were contentious. However, through give-and-take concessions, the dialogue intervention yielded invaluable by-products such as maximisation of indigenous knowledge systems. Building on the participants’ input, sustainable healing and reconciliation can be achieved through deliberate truth-recovery, the right to justice, reparation, forgiveness and non-recurrence assurances. The research outcomes show that Zimbabwe urgently needs a ‘hybrid’ transitional justice framework based on inclusive participation. Inclusivity is critical because politicians are not necessarily experts in peacebuilding. The yet to be implemented National Peace and Reconciliation Commission can be used as a tool to seek public opinion on how to overcome the entrenched ‘fearology and militarism’ (Oberg 2016) ahead of the watershed 2018 general elections. Uncensored national debates can be used to gather information on the way forward. The multiple merits of Information Communication and Technology should be fully maximised in peacebuilding. / D

D. Litt. et Phil. (African Politics) / This study is an exploration of transitional justice mechanisms available to post conflict communities. It is a context sensitive and sustained interrogation of the effectiveness of endogenous transitional justice mechanisms in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The study utilised Ruti Teitel’s (1997: 2009-2080) realist/idealist theory as its theoretical framework. Using the case of Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, it analyses the application of imported idealist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly International Criminal Court (ICC) trials. It also debates the efficacy of realist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly the South African model of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).The study explores the application of what it terms broad realist transitional justice mechanisms used mostly in rural areas of Zimbabwe to achieve peace building and reconciliation. These modes of everyday healing and reconciliation include the traditional institutions of ngozi (avenging spirit), botso (self-shaming), chenura (cleansing ceremonies), nhimbe (community working groups) and nyaradzo (memorials). The key finding of this exploration is that local realist transitional justice mechanisms are more efficacious in fostering peace building and reconciliation than imported idealist mechanisms such as the ICC trials and imported realist mechanisms such as the TRC. More value can be realised when imported realist mechanisms and local realist transitional justice mechanisms complement each other. The study contributes to the literature on transitional justice in general and bottom-up, victim-centred reconciliation in particular. It offers a different approach to the study of transitional justice in post conflict Zimbabwe by recasting the debate away from the liberal peace paradigm which critiques state centric top-down approaches such as trials, clemencies, amnesties and institutional reform. The study considers the agency of ‘ordinary’ people in resolving the after effects of politically motivated harm. It also lays the foundation for further research into other traditional transitional justice mechanisms used for peace building and reconciliation elsewhere in Africa / Political Sciences

This study is an exploration of transitional justice mechanisms available to post conflict communities. It is a context sensitive and sustained interrogation of the effectiveness of endogenous transitional justice mechanisms in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The study utilised Ruti Teitel’s (1997: 2009-2080) realist/idealist theory as its theoretical framework. Using the case of Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, it analyses the application of imported idealist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly International Criminal Court (ICC) trials. It also debates the efficacy of realist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly the South African model of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).The study explores the application of what it terms broad realist transitional justice mechanisms used mostly in rural areas of Zimbabwe to achieve peace building and reconciliation. These modes of everyday healing and reconciliation include the traditional institutions of ngozi (avenging spirit), botso (self-shaming), chenura (cleansing ceremonies), nhimbe (community working groups) and nyaradzo (memorials). The key finding of this exploration is that local realist transitional justice mechanisms are more efficacious in fostering peace building and reconciliation than imported idealist mechanisms such as the ICC trials and imported realist mechanisms such as the TRC. More value can be realised when imported realist mechanisms and local realist transitional justice mechanisms complement each other. The study contributes to the literature on transitional justice in general and bottom-up, victim-centred reconciliation in particular. It offers a different approach to the study of transitional justice in post conflict Zimbabwe by recasting the debate away from the liberal peace paradigm which critiques state centric top-down approaches such as trials, clemencies, amnesties and institutional reform. The study considers the agency of ‘ordinary’ people in resolving the after effects of politically motivated harm. It also lays the foundation for further research into other traditional transitional justice mechanisms used for peace building and reconciliation elsewhere in Africa / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Politics)

This thesis examines the practices of international, national, and localised criminal courts in post-genocide Rwanda. It argues that, although the courts are compatible in law, an interpretive cultural analysis shows that they have often competed with one another. The research draws on interviews conducted with judges, lawyers, and a group of witnesses and suspects from the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the national Rwandan courts, and the gacaca community courts. The courts’ judges and lawyers have interpreted Rwanda’s transitional justice processes very differently. The ICTR has been principally concerned with developing international criminal case law. The national courts purport to have focused on domestic legal reform, while personnel inside gacaca view these local courts as having provided an account of the events and causes of the genocide. This thesis argues that the different interpretations offered within Rwanda’s post-genocide courts illuminate divergent legal cultures inside the institutions, leading to failures in effective cooperation and evidence gathering. The courts have pursued diverse means to try to establish their legitimate authority. However, among a group of Rwandan citizens, the practices of one court were routinely used as the basis to criticise the actions of the others, raising challenges for the legitimacy of transitional justice in Rwanda. The potential for similar competition between domestic and international justice processes is apparent in the current practice of the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, this competition can be mitigated through more effective communication between different justice systems which respond to the needs of the affected populations, fostering a legal culture of complementarity.