Complexities in addressing past injustices: Insights from war crime trials, historical commissions and the reform of education about a recent past

Abstract

The panel brings together papers that help us to rethink and reframe transitional justice. The first paper examines how transitional justice advances processes and mechanisms that raise expectations that are difficult to fulfill. The panel then looks into three different mechanisms: domestic war crime trials in Serbia, and the tensions between secretive trials and their supposed aspiration to post-conflict reconciliation. Second, historical commissions and how or whether these mechanisms can take part in decolonization efforts for transformative change and the protection of human rights. And third, guarantees of non-recurrence in the form of initiatives from civil society organizations to promote the reform of education about a recent past and how these initiatives can contribute to prevent future violations. In all these cases, policy tensions appear that reveal the complexities inherent in addressing past injustices.

Title	Details
The consequences of hope and disappointment: How unfulfilled expectations created in transitional justice initiatives can undermine a peace process	View Paper Details
Confronting the Colonial Past: Assessing the Disruptive Capacities of Historical Commissions	View Paper Details
Enemy of Justice? Secrecy in Domestic War Crimes Trials in Serbia	View Paper Details