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Summary

Sriram, Chandra Lekha (2003). Confronting past human rights violations: justice vs. peace in times of transition. London and New York: Frank Cass.

This book examines what makes accountability for previous abuses more or less possible for transitional regimes to achieve. It closely examines the other vital goals of such regimes against which accountability is often balanced. The options available are not simply prosecution or pardon, as the most heated polemics of the debate over transitional justice suggest, but a range of options, from complete amnesty through truth commissions and lustration or purification to prosecution. The question then is not whether accountability can be achieved, but what degree of accountability can be achieved by a given country. This book examines five countries’ experiences in detail – El Salvador, Honduras, Argentina, South Africa, and Sri Lanka – and offers a comparative survey of nearly 30 countries’ experiences. (publisher’s abstract)

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