Where are the Voices and Experiences of Persons with Disabilities/Disabled People in Transitional Justice Research and Practice?

Abstract

The ever-expanding field of transitional justice has, to date, largely overlooked the issue of disability, even though there is growing research on disability and armed conflict. Relatedly, little attention has been given to the accessibility of transitional justice processes. This Policy and Practice Note, the idea for which developed from the author’s own personal experiences and reflections as a transitional justice scholar with a physical disability, points to unexplored synergies between the human rights and social models of disability (reflected within the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities), on one hand, and transitional justice, on the other. It also highlights and discusses three important dimensions of accessibility—processual, contextual and methodological—that could be usefully explored within transitional justice scholarship and practice to give the issue of disability the recognition and prominence that it deserves.