(De)colonizing Human Rights and Transitional Justice

Scholars and practitioners in the fields of human rights and transitional justice have been undergoing substantial reflexive debate over the last 10 years, asking questions about who produces knowledge for whom, how justice and politics intersect, and how violence and peace are represented in certain people, places, and processes. Alongside these field-specific developments, as a community of knowledge producers and users we are increasingly aware of the politics of our own work and the conditions under which we work. Those of us based at universities are being urged to engage in processes of decolonising the curriculum, held to greater account for the narratives we perpetuate and the epistemic violence that has built up over centuries of higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic which has gripped the world since early 2020 has further fuelled discussions around the colonization of disaster responses. The implications of the pandemic and response measures around the globe on the practice and discourse of human rights and the rule of law is receiving increasing attention and criticism from practitioners and academics alike. Human rights and transitional justice scholars have a responsibility to ensure that the research we all do satisfies both just means and just ends. Accusations of western imperialism, of enlightenment dominance, and of neo-colonial attitudes hold us all to account. There is rich debate and learning to be had if we can come together to interrogate how we can decolonise the fields in which we work and what this might mean for what we do, what we know, and how we act. We invite contributions addressing themes that may include but are certainly not limited to: - COVID-19 - Justice initiatives in post-colonial contexts - Addressing post-colonial legacies in research and teaching on human rights and transitional justice - Academic freedom - The turn towards ‘the local’ within transitional justice Finally, the Section Co-Chairs wish to encourage early career as well as established scholars to participate in ECPR General Conferences and Workshops. This section aims to place scholars at different stages of their career in conversation with each other, in order to encourage, inspire and challenge a new generation of political scientists.