24 May 2024

Transitional Justice Explained: Pillars for Peace and Reconciliation

The phrase “transitional justice” is, perhaps, one of the most frequently used terms that is largely incomprehensible to people outside of the justice sector. Transitional justice work encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at furthering society’s ability to come to terms with the history and impacts of large-scale conflict, repression, and human rights violations. Transitional justice aims to provide recognition to victims, survivors, and families; to rebuild the trust of individuals in state institutions; to reinforce respect for human rights; and to promote the rule of law, all as critical steps towards reconciliation and the prevention of new violations. 

The importance of transitional justice is underscored by the UN’s designation in 2011 of a Special Rapporteur (SR) to deal with situations of transition from conflict or authoritarian rule in which there have been gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law. Former SR Fabian Salvioli described the five pillars of transitional justice and States’ obligations in his 2023 report to the UN Human Rights Council. 

Truth seeking:  The inalienable right of victims and their families to know the truth about past events concerning the perpetration of heinous crimes and about the circumstances and reasons that led, through massive or systematic violations, to the perpetration of those crimes.  Truth is necessary to achieve justice, to support memorialization, and to ensure non-recurrence.

Justice:  States have the obligation to ensure that perpetrators of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are prosecuted, tried and duly punished.

Reparation: In the context of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, States must provide a readily available, prompt and effective reparation to victims for the harm suffered.

Memorialization:  States have a responsibility to preserve and transmit memory concerning violations of human rights … and the duty to preserve archives and other evidence concerning such violations, with a view to preserving the collective memory from extinction and guard against the development of revisionist and negationist arguments.

Guarantees of non-recurrence: States should guarantee non-recurrence of grave crimes in order to ensure that victims do not have to endure violations of their rights again. States must promote mechanisms for preventing and monitoring social conflicts and ensuring their resolution and, to this end, must undertake institutional reforms and other measures necessary to ensure respect for the rule of law, foster and sustain a culture of respect for human rights, and restore or establish public trust in government institutions.

Non-governmental organisations, including Synergy for Justice, support transitional justice processes in a variety of ways including truth-seeking, prosecution, promotion of reparations, constitutional, legal and institutional reform, the strengthening of civil society, memorialization efforts, and cultural initiatives to promote healing and reconciliation at the community level. Synergy always works with local partners to ensure that efforts are locally-driven, locally-owned, and truly respond to the needs of victims, survivors, and families.

We’re currently working closely with Amal Healing and Advocacy Center, a women-led, Syrian-led organisation based in southern Turkiye to elevate women’s voices and to ensure that their experiences, perspectives, and desires are reflected in transitional justice processes at local, international, and regional levels. This spring we are training three groups of women on transitional justice, peacebuilding, community mobilisation, and facilitation so that the participants can lead and facilitate community dialogue sessions in their own communities and gather recommendations from Syrian women on what they want to see in a future transitional justice process in Syria. 

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