Transitional Justice and the Politics of International Socialization – The Case of Timor Leste

Transitional Justice comprises a growing part of international engagement in post-conflict societies. International actors such as the United Nations view the establishment of truth commissions, reparations programs and tribunals as an essential contribution to the development of rule of law and the spread of liberal democratic norms. Norm diffusion theories explain the effects of transitional justice as socialization with which states and societies become introduced to the norm set of the international community. However, conceiving these processes as interaction facilitates a better understanding of why socialization might fail although the actors involved had initially agreed on the importance of certain norms and their implementation. The paper argues that a better understanding of interaction in these processes has to take the mutual perception of the actors involved into account. Building on the case of Timor Leste it illustrates how the perception of United Nations' engagement in the area of transitional justice as inconsistent and unreliable has provoked resistance among political actors in Timor Leste. This resistance went so strong as to not only reject the United Nations' approach as a whole but also to from a coalition with the former enemy Indonesia against United Nations' influence.