Dilemmas of Expanding Transitional Justice, or Forging the Nexus between Transitional Justice and Development

Abstract

It is timely that in just its second year of publication, the International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) has chosen to focus this special issue on the nexus between transitional justice and development. This is an indication of the salience of the issues of development generally and social justice specifically to the pro-cess of seeking transitional justice in societies moving out of conflict or other forms of crisis and repression. The number of articles received for consideration in this special issue and the range of seminal topics they raise serve to under-line the pressing need to consider concerns of development and social justice as experienced and expressed by both scholars and practitioners. In introducing this special issue, I want to highlight four areas of inquiry that scholars, advocates and practitioners of both transitional justice and development must consider if either field is to achieve its intended goals. The articles in this issue explore many of these four areas in greater depth, with potent illustrative examples that draw on a range of cases, as outlined below. The first thorny question is: Can transitional justice (TJ) today afford not to con-cern itself directly with social injustice and patterns of inequality, discrimination and marginalization that were underlying causes of a conflict and that inflicted major suffering and victimization on vast swathes of a population? How can (or should) TJ have a more direct impact on reducing social and economic inequality? Second, should TJ measures cost less and deliver more? For impoverished coun-tries, TJ often represents a costly luxury in a highly resource-constrained environ-ment where all aspects of social, economic and political life need to be rebuilt and development is a priority. In this context, TJ often comes to represent a trade-off of sorts between justice or development, rather than promoting development with justice. Third, should TJ concern itself directly with war economies and corruption, particularly the exploitation of natural and mineral resources, as these are often perpetrated by the same war criminals – and with the same abusive, violent and exploitative means and devastating effect on victims – as the war crimes that historically fall within the purview of TJ? Fourth, how can TJ effectively address the spiraling levels of criminal and social violence that may occur in postconflict societies? Such violence often arises along-side and, ironically, apace with both TJ measures seeking to redress past violence and postconflict development programs seeking to undo the damage of war. It stands as an obstacle to both human security and sustainable development. How can TJ deliver on its objective of deterrence and create the space for delivery of substantive development to victims of past and present violence? Each of these four issues are interrelated, and I strongly believe that TJ will lose credibility in the predominantly impoverished and devastated societies where it operates if these questions are not urgently and meaningfully addressed by practitioners and scholars. Conversely, efforts to find appropriate responses to these challenges could contribute greatly to the positive impact TJ mechanisms have on the lives of survivors and on the chances for a stable transition from conflict to peace. This editorial seeks to open up some of these quandaries for inquiry, and the deeply reflective articles included in this special issue explore these complex ques-tions in depth, expanding and creating new links within existing theories and providing illustrative examples of real-life experiences from around the world. Four Dilemmas Concerning the Nexus between TJ and 'Development'