Resisting and Contesting Transitional Justice

Abstract

The absence of transitional justice institutions or their poor implementation are often said to be due to lack of political will. Unintended outcomes and negative impacts of dealing with the past processes are considered to be failures. However, such assessments and evaluations are always made on the basis of a certain conceptualization, model or norm of transitional justice which crystallized over the years and became part of peacebuilding efforts. In cases of such ‘failed’ transitional justice processes we often observe contestation and resistance at different stages: in the design of its institutions, in their implementation and in the delivery of results. They might indicate underlying power relations, the imposition of a particular concept by powerful actors or attempts of political manipulation of transitional justice. Resistance and contestation may also develop over the question of agency, participation and representation. Finally, contestation and resistance over the substance of transitional justice and the question of whose understandings of justice, truth and reconciliation are represented may point to divergent or alternative visions of a just and peaceful society. Therefore, in this panel we are looking at transitional justice as a political process of negotiated values and power relations. Such an approach to transitional justice does not dismiss resistance and contestation as deviant or analytically irrelevant, nor does it lead us to take into account resistance and contestation in a mere instrumentalist approach, e.g. understanding them in order to be able to ‘tackle’ them. We are thus interested in questions such as who resists and contests transitional justice, how resistance and contestation manifest themselves in a particular context and what are their underlying reasons. We welcome theoretical and empirical papers from various approaches and disciplines to look at the outcomes and impact of transitional justice mechanisms through the lens of resistance and contestation.

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