Transitional Justice and Reconciliation: A Path to Positive Peace

This essay explores the concepts of transitional justice (TJ) and reconciliation processes and their significance in establishing positive peace within post-war countries. It defines TJ as a response to human rights violations, encompassing criminal prosecution, truth commissions, reparations, and institutional reform. Reconciliation is defined as mutual acknowledgment of past sufferings and a process towards sustainable peace. The essay argues that TJ and reconciliation are crucial for societies transitioning from conflict, helping to repair relationships and prevent future atrocities. The essay uses the case study of Sierra Leone to illustrate the implementation of a dual approach to TJ, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, highlighting their impact on peacebuilding and the challenges faced. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of these mechanisms, while acknowledging that context and timing of implementation significantly influences their effectiveness. This assignment is available on Desklib, a platform providing resources for students.

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“How Transitional Justice (TJ) and the
reconciliation process assisting to bring positive
peace in a post war country”

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Contents
1. The concept of Transitional Justice ............................................................................................ 4
2. The concept of reconciliation process ......................................................................................... 4
3. How transitional justice and reconciliation process assist to bring positive peace in a post-
war country? ................................................................................................................................. 4
4. Case study - ................................................................................................................................... 5
5. References ...................................................................................................................................... 8

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1. The concept of Transitional Justice
The concept of Transitional Justice (TJ) was emerged as an approach and a field of study which
can be dated back to the post World War II. Transitional justice is a response to systematic or
widespread violations of human rights. At the time, human rights activists and others wanted
to address systematic abuses by former regimes but without endangering the political
transformations that were underway. Since these changes were popularly called “transitions to
democracy,” people began calling this new multidisciplinary field “transitional justice.”1
Transitional Justice is carried out through basic approaches such as criminal prosecution, truth
commissions, reparations programs, gender justice and institutional reform. Throughout
history, there have been many transitional processes from war to peace, and from
authoritarianism to democracy. Moreover, with the First and Second World Wars, the twentieth
century faced two of the most important transitions from war to peace.
2. The concept of reconciliation process
The answer for the question what is reconciliation? is much broad in international relations
theory. There are no pre universally accepted definition for the term reconciliation. But when
defining the term reconciliation, we may able to emphasis on the involvement of mutual
acknowledgement of past sufferings, constructive relationships and a process towards a
sustainable peace. Reconciliation is regarded as being necessary to prevent the desire for
revenge.
3. How transitional justice and reconciliation process assist to bring positive peace in a
post-war country?
Transitional justice in post war country can be termed as “how societies transitioning from
repressive rule or armed conflict deal with the past, how they overcome social divisions or
achieve reconciliation, and how they create justice systems so as to prevent future human rights
atrocities” (Call, 2004). A post conflict transitional justice must also lead to reconciliation.
Reconciliation can be used as a different types of approaches in order to fulfill particular
aspects of a peacebuilding process. The need to reconcile may arise in post conflict contexts
by the need to repair and restore damaged relationships for continued existence. This is referred
1 International Center for Transitional Justice – What is Transitional Justice? www.ictj.org

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as “a society reconciling with its past and groups and individuals reconciling with each other”
by (Hayner, 2002).
Positive peace is a true, lasting, and sustainable peace built on justice for all the people and
communities who have a repercussion both directly and indirectly. To achieve positive peace
there are certain commitments to emphasize such as establishing peace through world order by
supporting international law, compliance with multilateral treaties, use of international courts,
and nonviolent resolution of disputes, participation in international organizations, trade, and
communication, establishing social equality and justice, economic equity, ecological balance,
protecting citizens from attack, and meeting basic human needs, establishing a civil peace that
provides the constitutional and legal means necessary to settle differences nonviolently,
eliminating indirect violence, and practicing conflict resolution as a foundation for building
peaceful interpersonal relationships. The concept of positive peace involves the elimination of
the root causes of war, violence, and injustice and the conscious attempt to build a society that
reflects these commitments. (Johansen., 2012).
4. Case study -
On March 23, 1991, an internal armed conflict broke out in Sierra Leone between the
government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel opposition group in the
country. This event marked the beginning of a 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone that left in its
wake massive human rights violations, destruction of life and property, and a nation deeply
and badly scarred. (Bangura, 2001). It is estimated that out of a Sierra Leonean population of
5.4 million, the civil war left about “50,000 dead, 4,000 amputation survivors, 2,000,000
displaced internally, 500,000 refugees and at least 5, 000 children turned into brutal
combatants”. (Evenson, 2004).
After the civil war ended, the government and of Sierra Leone and the international community
worked collaboratively to confront the issues that may have led to the war redress the atrocities
resulting from the war, and forge ahead in unity towards national development. (Berewa, 2001).
In the aim of peacebuilding in the country, Sierra Leone implemented two accountability
mechanisms as part of its peace-building policy framework.

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Sierra Leone’s transitional justice approach had more success in building peace. Sierra Leone
implemented a dual approach to transitional justice. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone were established. (Berewa, 2001)
In the case of Sierra Leone, opinions were divided as to whether the TRC and Special Court
were needed to facilitate peace and stability. Three policy options emerged as accountability
models in that regard. These were; (1) TRC as the sole accountability mechanism, (2) TRC
with prosecutions which could be hybrid, international or national and (3) TRC combined with
prosecutions, lustrations and purges. Prosecutions as a sole means of accountability to facilitate
peace never emerged as a policy option for Sierra Leone.
Given the pardon and amnesty provisions of the Lomé Peace Agreement, the Commission was
proposed as an alternative to criminal justice in order to establish accountability for the
atrocities that had been committed during the conflict. The Special Court was created after the
abandonment of the amnesty provisions (or certain of them) following breaches of the Lomé
Peace Agreement by elements within the RUF.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act urged the commission to make findings in
relation to the root causes, nature and extent of violations and abuses in respect of the armed
conflict in Sierra Leone. The findings of the commission in relation to following topics and
themes such as nature and characteristics of the conflict, causes of the conflict, perpetrator
responsibility, military and political history, external actors, the judiciary, youth, children,
women, mineral resources and TRC and the special court for Sierra Leone.
The recommendations of commission are based on the findings carried out on the post conflict.
These core recommendations include:
 The call upon leaders at all levels to commit themselves to new principles of committed
leadership;
 A call on all those in the public sector to usher in a new culture of ethics and service to
fight the scourge of corruption which saps the life-force of Sierra Leone;
 The enshrining of the right to human dignity and the abolition of the death penalty;
 The upholding of the freedom of expression which is the lifeblood of a vibrant democracy;
 The introduction of a common and equitable citizenship which will promote a new
patriotism and devotion to Sierra Leone;

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 Recommendations to strengthen democracy, the rule of law and institutions of
accountability;
 New principles of National Security, which reflect the will of Sierra Leoneans to live in
peace and harmony;
 Recommendations to bring government and service delivery to people throughout Sierra
Leone.
Further, commission worked towards the future by introducing a national vision for Sierra
Leone. The Commission also looked to the future for the purpose of describing the kind of
future post conflict society that the recommendations were designed to achieve. The
Commission called on Sierra Leoneans to tell the Commission what future society they
envisaged for their country.
As a conclusion the policy choice of using the TRC and Special Court should have peace as its
goal but that may not be the case in all situations, because anything could be dressed up as
justice. Again, timing in terms of implementation of the mechanisms. Furthermore, it became
clear that the international community including the UN and transnational human rights NGOs
influenced the policy choice of the TRC and Special Court, the concurrent running of same as
well as the packaging of the two mechanisms.

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5. References
Bangura, Z., 2001. Raising Their Voices: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation. In UNAMSIL ed.
s.l.:David Williams Associates: Freetown..
Berewa, S., 2001. Addressing Impunity Using Divergent Approaches: The Truth and. In UNMASIL ed.
s.l.:David Williams Associates: Freetown.
Call, C., 2004. Is transitional justice really just? Brown Journal of World Affairs,. 11(1) ed. s.l.:s.n.
Evenson, E. M., 2004. Truth and Justice in Sierra Leone: Coordination between. s.l.:s.n.
Hayner, B., 2002. Unspeakable Truths: Facing the challenge of truth. New York: Routledge.
Johansen., C. W. a. J., 2012. Peace and Conflict Studies: A Reader.. London and New York: Routledge.