Transitional justice responses to women’s involvement in political violence: comparative insights from Colombia and Northern Ireland

Despite the prominence of singular narratives of women in conflict as victims (and primarily as victims of sexual violence), women have played and continue to play a wide variety of active roles in conflict. While recognition of women’s involvement in political violence is increasing, contemporary transitional justice programmes often still fall into the trap of grouping women and children together in a group constructed as ‘innocent’ and antithetical to the perpetration of violence. Some recent initiatives, however, offer the possibility of shifting this trend. This paper focuses on the potential for acceptance and active incorporation of narratives of women’s involvement in political violence through transitional justice mechanisms. Based on extensive archival analysis of documentation from the Colombian transitional justice process broadly and the Colombian Truth Commission specifically, this paper illustrates new approaches to dealing with the aftermath of women’s involvement in political violence. The paper also explores how transitional justice mechanisms can engage with the complexity of women’s experiences of conflict and move beyond a binary conception of women as either victims or perpetrators. Examination of the archives of the Colombian Truth Commission indicate an approach to incorporating narratives of women’s perpetration of political violence that does not require downplaying of the violence; instead, the Commission incorporated varied and conflicting narratives about the nature of the conflict and reasons for women’s involvement in groups such as the FARC-EP. Based on insights from the Colombian case, moreover, the paper also examines prospects for a similarly nuanced approach to narratives of women’s involvement in political violence in the new transitional justice mechanisms set out in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. This paper offers insights into how transitional justice mechanisms can legitimise or disqualify women’s experiences in conflict as perpetrators of political violence.