"This book examines a series of cases where peaceful 'new beginnings' have been declared after periods of violence and where transitional justice institutions played a role in defining justice and the new socio-political order"--
Since the end of the Cold War, political new beginnings in Africa have increasingly been linked to questions of transitional justice. Since the establishment of the South African truth commission and the international tribunal in Arusha, the continent has been central in debates about how to deal with past injustices and achieve political transition. This book examines a series of cases where peaceful `new beginnings' have been declared after periods of violence and where transitional justice institutions played a role in defining justice and the new sociopolitical order
Covering Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Mauritania, the book focuses on three issues that are key to understanding `new beginnings': the problem of finding a foundation for that which explicitly breaks with the past; the discrepancies between lofty promises and the chaotic realities of transitional justice in action; and the dialectic between logics of the exception and the ordinary, employed to legitimize or resist transitional justice mechanisms
With contributions from an international array of leading scholars, from South Africa, Europe, USA and Canada, this timely publication is invaluable in understanding the many complex issues associated with transitional justice in Africa
Transition and Justice examines a series of cases from across the African continent where peaceful new beginnings were declared after periods of violence and where transitional justice institutions helped define justice and the new socio-political order.
- Offers a new perspective on transition and justice in Africa transcending the institutional limits of transitional justice
- Covers a wide range of situations, and presents a broad range of sites where past injustices are addressed
- Examines cases where peaceful new beginnings have been declared after periods of violence
- Addresses fundamental questions about transitions and justice in societies characterized by a high degree of external involvement and internal fragmentation
