The Complex World of Peacebuilding: Interactions Between Transitional Justice and Programmes to Reintegrate Ex-Combatants

The many processes under the heading of “transitional justice” are themselves just one strand in the nexus of problems faced in post-war recovery. It is a complex adaptive environment of interactions, synergies, and contradictions, involving many actors and processes which may work with or against each other. One of the processes affecting transitional justice – and affected by it – is the social and economic reintegration of ex-combatants. There are natural tensions, such as the rehabilitation of ex-combatants being perceived as a “reward” or creating a sense of impunity. Fear of prosecutions can also hinder open discussion about what happened during the war. There are also possibilities for mutual benefit, such as truth recovery helping with psychosocial support for communities and participants in the conflict. Both processes also involve local, national and international actors with different perspectives and types of power. These tensions and synergies between reintegration and transitional justice during post-war recovery are explored.