Constructing Transitional Justice as a Practice and as a Narrative

Abstract

This panel explores the processes through which transitional justice becomes constructed as a practice and a narrative. It delves into under-researched aspects of transitional justice such as how contextual factors determine a specific response to massive violations; or how international and hybrid courts seek external knowledge to respond to the mandate of providing reparations, a mandate for which courts they are not prepared. Furthermore, the panel will question the narratives a transitional justice paradigm creates. For instance through preventing human rights violations against specific people from surfacing or through reconsidering the role that law has in the pursuit of truth finding after atrocity. These narratives are also challenged through exploring the failure of Latin American Truth Commissions in examining past violence against women and child soldiers.