Peacemaking

Restorative and traditional practices are being proposed for use in national reconciliation and peacemaking processes.

A new commission for restorative justice to deal with difficult past practices of abuse and violence in Sri Lanka

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission The communiqué from the Presidential Media Unit announcing a probe into the violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct has incorporated several new words and phrases which are not yet familiar terms in the political discourse in Sri Lanka. A few such words and phrases are: the need for restorative justice; a probe of violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct; no recurrence of such tragic conflict in the future; institutional, administrative and welfare measures already taken in the post conflict phase and which should be further taken in order to effect reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation; legislative and administrative measures that may be necessary to prevent such situations in the future; assessing the lessons learned from the recent conflict phase; identification of any persons or groups responsible for such acts, (and) payment of compensation for victims. For a long period the government took up the position of burying the past as the best policy to be used in order to avoid the surfacing of the unhealed wounds. However, such a view, which has been taken in other places after the country has faced mass atrocities has not been an enduring policy. It simply becomes necessary to deal with the past. The only issue is how daringly such a task will be faced. This of course depends on the political will of the country's leaders and the civil society leaders of the time. If the country is blest with an enlightened leadership politically as well as other areas of intellectual life it becomes possible to take far reaching actions in dealing with past atrocities and violence and violations of human rights.

Babo-Soares, Dionisio. Nahe Biti: The Philosophy and Process of Grassroots Reconciliation (and Justice) in East Timor.

UNTAET and the East Timorese have pursued formal reconciliation processes as part of the nation-building effort in newly independent East Timor. These formal reconciliation processes aim for closure and operate in the realm of national politics. In the meantime local communities have been dealing with the issues of reintegrating refugees and rebuilding social relationships through an inventive adaptation of traditional practices of reconciliation. In contrast to the formal elite-level strategies, the grassroots strategies are more concerned with process than formal outcomes. Author's abstract.

Borer, Tristan Anne. Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies

Confronting the past has become an established norm for countries undergoing transitions from violence to peace, from authoritarianism to democracy, or both. This book draws from two bodies of literature – peacebuilding and transitional justice – to examine whether truth-telling mechanisms can contribute to sustainable peace and, if so, how and under what conditions. The authors approach these questions by examining whether truth telling contributes to the following elements, all of which are deemed to be constitutive of sustainable peace: reconciliation, human rights, gender equity, restorative justice, the rule of law, the mitigation of violence, and the healing of trauma. (publisher’s description).

Bougainville wants restorative justice approach to settling violence in south

from the report on Radio New Zealand International: The autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville hopes to resolve a long standing impasse in the south of the main island by taking the traditional Melanesian approach of reconciliation. Despite six years of autonomy, few government services are available around the district of Konnou because the security of workers can’t be guaranteed.

Braithwaite, John and Dunn, Leah and Cookson, Michael and Braithwaite, Valerie. Anomie and violence:Non-truth and reconciliation in Indonesian peacebuilding.

This book argues that between 1997 and 2004, theoretically, Indonesia experienced a period of anomie (Durkheim 1897): a breakdown of the regulatory order that secured the institutional order (the rules of the game). A security sector that pursued its own interests by taking sides instead of preventing violence from all sides was one important part of that wider problem of anomie. This will recur as a problem in the next three volumes of Peacebuilding Compared—on Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Abuses by the security forces escalated communal defiance before finally helping to bring violence under control. A Mertonian reading of anomie theory that dissects legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures in a micro–macro way is found to be fertile for understanding the onset of these conflicts. Emulation (modelling) of strategies for seizing illegitimate opportunities contributed to the diffusion of violence. Remarkable accomplishments of the reintegration of combatants from organisations such as Laskar Jihad, in which religious leaders showed great leadership for peace, was a feature of Indonesian peacebuilding. So was reconciliation through sharing power combined with the sharing of work (gotong royong) for reconstruction. The chapter then moves on to consider the complex multidimensionality of the factors that make for both war and peace. This evidence is used to argue for locally attuned multidimensionality and redundancy in peacebuilding strategy. This is the key to managing the inherent risks of violence in the gaming of transitions to democracy. (excerpt)

Chandler, David. Coming to Terms with the Terror and History of Pol Pot's Cambodia (1975-79).

In this essay I will be dealing with a key institution of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) which encapsulated the terror that suffused the regime and was intimately connected with DK’s triumphalist notions of history. I’’ also discuss the ways in which recent Cambodian history has been imagined and altered by successive regimes. I’ll examine how induced memories, followed by induced amnesia, can play havoc with attempts to assemble and interpret historic data, to say nothing of efforts to achieve reconciliation or closure. These manipulations of history, which form a part of Cambodian political culture, impede the search for justice that continues to elude millions of survivors of the Pol Pot era. (excerpt)

Chen, Eirene and Jalalzada, Mariam. Gender and Community Peacebuilding in Rural Afghanistan.

This paper examines prevailing cultural attitudes towards Afghan women as peacebuilders and explores the impact that an innovative UNHCR-sponsored refugee reintegration program has had on gender dynamics in several rural Afghan communities divided by a history of violent conflict. The program integrates intercommunal reconciliation activities with joint income-generation projects, in an effort to restore trust and strengthen economic capacity. The authors discuss how implementation methodologies have affected the lives of the women who participated in the program as community peace mobilizers. They also propose culturally sustainable strategies to facilitate gender equality in rural communities. (Author's abstract)

Dowdle, Michael W.. Public Accountability in Alien Terrain: Exploring For Constitutional Accountability in the People's Repulic of China

"Comparative constitutional law can thus provide a useful foil for exploring today's apparent accountability crisis, and perhaps even for addressing some aspects of that crisis. This chapter uses the experience of constitutional development in the People's Republic of China to explore what such a methodology might look like. Anglo-American scholars are clearly 'outsiders' insofar as China's constitutional system is concerned. On the one hand, that system lacks the defining attributes we associate with constitutional accountability, namely the use of direct public election to fill principal constitutional offices and a bureaucratic, 'rule of law' architecture that binds lower-level civil servants to more politically responsive principals. On the other hand, China's constitutional system has experienced a significant quickening over the past fifteen years, showing increasing and recognizably-constitutional effectiveness. There clearly seems to be something going on there that escapes our cognition. An analytic methodology that is able to give usable comparative meaning and insight into China's constitutional system would seem to be of use, not only to our understandings of comparative constitutional law, but also to our more domestic efforts to identify the public accountability possibilities that might exist in the new and unfamiliar arenas and institutions that are coming to characterize governance in the post-regulatory era." (excerpt)

Girl's death 24 years ago haunts quest for justice in reformist Myanmar

from the article by Andrew R.C. Marshall on Reuters: ....The authorities haven't forgotten either. Political reform in Myanmar is fostering greater openness about past atrocities but little accountability, especially when the country's still-powerful military is involved. Today, Win Maw Oo's impoverished and long-suffering family remains under police surveillance.

Hasegawa, Sukehiro. Justice and/or Reconciliation: the key to successful transition from post-conflict peacekeeping to peace and nation-building

In this paper, Sukehiro Hasegawa examines the subject of transition from post-conflict peacekeeping to peace and nation-building in relation to issues of justice and reconciliation. His basic point is the need for a duality of justice and reconciliation in post-conflict peacekeeping. That is, in post-conflict situations the international community must not limit its response to the establishment of traditional justice mechanisms of courts focused on punishment and retribution. There must be attention to and mechanisms for reparation, for a full accounting of what happened in the period of conflict, and for national reconciliation in the aftermath of conflict. To explore these matters, Hasegawa discusses justice, reconciliation, and truth. He locates all of this in the specific context of post-conflict peacekeeping and nation-building in Timor-Leste.

Hooper, Stephen. Should East Timor establish a truth and reconciliation commission?

In 1999, through a United Nations sponsored referendum, the people of East Timor voted on whether to pursue greater autonomy under Indonesian rule or independence itself from Indonesia. The proponents of independence won the vote, but then a devastating period of violence by pro-autonomy militia followed. Now independent East Timor must rebuild both materially and socially. In this context, Stephen Hooper writes that East Timor must rebuild in such a way that justice is done and reconciliation occurs.

Kan-Mei Chang. Crime Victim Protection Policy in Taiwan

The first article on victimology in Taiwan appeared in 1965, and in 1998 the Ministry of Justice opened the Office for Victims of Crime to develop and implement the Ministry's policy for victim support. The government then launched the Action Plan for Reinforcement of Crime Victim Support, which is an agenda that details the fundamental policy plan for victim support in the field of law enforcement, education, health, welfare, and the mass media. This Action Plan was amended in 2000, and each government agency is conducting a variety of support services for crime victims based on the Action Plan. Victims' participation in criminal proceedings includes being able to request higher public prosecutors' offices to review a decision at a lower level not to prosecute, having the option to present a victim impact statement to a court, and the opportunity to testify in court under protection from intimidation or retaliation. The Crime Victim Compensation Bill, which provides state compensation for crime victims, was passed May 27, 1995. This chapter explains eligibility and type of compensation under the program. Also described are payment of compensation, claim for compensation, and practice of victim compensation. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Kouvo, Sari and Mazoori, Dallas. Notes from the field: Reconciliation, justice and mobilization of war victims in Afghanistan.

This article traces the early stages of civil society mobilization for transitional justice and recent efforts to establish a network of war victims in Afghanistan. Specifically, it focuses on the development of the Transitional Justice Coordination Group and its victim-centered activities, such as organizing a Victims’ Jirga for Justice in 2010 and a National Victims’ Conference in 2011. It also situates these developments in the context of the broader transitional justice and reconciliation processes occurring in Afghanistan. (author's abstract)

Krishnan, Loganathan. Is Restorative Justice Able To Deal With Land Grievances Of Indigenous Peoples? A Case Of Malaysia

The World Wide Fund for Nature described indigenous people as the earth's most focal stewards. There are 300 million indigenous people in the world and approximately 100,000 in Malaysia. The term 'Indigenous people' is contentious and guaranteeing their rights is a thorny issue. They live a distinctive lifestyle, a tradition, which involves a vivid history. In today's epoch, they live with a certain amount of expectation from the government of the day. Expectation is deeply embedded in their blood in relation to their rights to land matters. They have a special relationship with their land, imbued with spirituality and sacredness. It forms a footing for social, economic, cultural structure and system. They often perceive it as something irretrievably transmitted to them through birthright. But, the ultra modern humanity has been a major threat to their rights. When land is appropriated it affects their traditional subsistence, land management and medicinal practices. In some instances they were encouraged to dump their nomadic life and progress to modern life. In Malaysia, the governing legislation is the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954. Its provisions, applicability, effect and operation would be analysed together with the current restorative justice measures as to whether the existing framework are a panacea for land grievances of the indigenous people. An analysis would be made as to type of restorative justice models that may be adopted to deal with their grievances. A study is also carried out as to the viability of international restorative justice measures or system to deal with their grievances. Nevertheless, the perplexing issue is, should restorative justice measures be looked from the eye of the indigenous people or the spectacle of the government. There must be a plea for radical changes in laws and policies protecting aboriginal people. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Lambourne, Wendy. "The pursuit of justice and reconciliation: Responding to genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda."

In this paper Lambourne explores the pursuit of justice and reconciliation in response to situations involving genocide, with particular emphasis on Cambodia and Rwanda. She begins by detailing the development of an international human rights regime following World War II. This regime consists, for example, of declarations and treaties through the United Nations and through regional agreements. Nevertheless, millions have been killed or traumatized by genocide and crimes against humanity. In this context, Lambourne contends that justice and reconciliation are critical in post-conflict peacebuildng. To advance her argument, she discusses the meanings of justice and reconciliation, as well as accountability mechanisms (e.g., international tribunals and truth commissions). She then examines the conflict and post-conflict periods in Cambodia and Rwanda in light of these issues.

Looking to the future: Justice and reconciliation in Cambodia

healing the wounds of war

This is a fascinating entry, Kiel. Thank you for it and for the blog of Dara Duong. The great importance of restorative justice is its [...]

McGonigle, Brianne N.. Two for the Price of One: Attempts by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia to Combine Retributive and Restorative Justice Principles.

This article illustrates howthe ECCCis struggling to combine successfully two distinct institutional responses to crimes, by being both a criminal tribunal, with its formal rules of procedure and focus on retributive justice, and a quasi-truth and reconciliation commission,with its more flexible approach to participatory rights for victims and focus on reconciliation. The article highlights the advantages and challenges of adopting a ‘two for the price of one’ model within the Cambodian context and uses the experiences of the ECCC to underscore important lessons for future ad hoc and hybrid courts. (author's abstract)

Nixon, Rod and Hohe, Tanja. Reconciling Justice. "Traditional" Law and State Judiciary in East Timor

The authors of this report, Tanja Hohe and Rod Nixon, assert that local legal systems have been of continuing relevance in East Timor throughout and beyond the periods of Portuguese colonial and Indonesia occupation. Imposed state judiciaries have had a limited impact. Moreover, local populations have tended to use state judiciaries, where imposed, in accord with the priorities of their own cultural context and perspective. In the cultural world view of native populations, kinship concepts relate intimately to most aspects of life. Communities tend to be ordered through kinship concepts and systems, with supernatural ancestral powers as controlling and life-giving forces. Hence, conflict resolution and punishment of offenses are part of this “traditional" or customary order of values and rules. Against this background, Hohe and Nixon examine the reconstruction of society following the destruction of the infrastructure and administration of East Timor in the wake of the vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999. During the peacekeeping and state-building operation of the United Nations, reconciling local and state systems and institutions has been extremely difficult. In particular, the authors explore the relationship between local approaches to conflict resolution and state systems of law in the context of rebuilding East Timor’s society.

Nixon, Rod. The Crisis of Governance in New Subsistence States.

The aim of this article is to explore options for public administration in weak states that lack experience of a self-generated state development process. The article commences with a review of the state development process in pre-historic times. Drawing on weak state writings and sociological theory, and with reference to the state development process as it unfolded in Europe, a critical examination of dominant prescriptions for state-building is then undertaken. Based on the sociological information considered, it is proposed that state-building strategies that may be appropriate for societies with experience of state social organisation and the administration of large surpluses, may be inappropriate for societies which have experienced no internally-generated change in the direction of state social organisation. Yet countries characterised by these later kinds of societies, referred to in this article as new subsistence states, by nature possess a range of local administrative mechanisms capable of operating independently from the state in accordance with the principles of "traditional authority." These local administrative mechanisms have no reliance on the centralised accrual and management of large surpluses for their operation. It is argued--with a particular emphasis on the areas of justice and conflict resolution - that sustainable public administration in new subsistence states will be advantaged by the formal recognition and integration of such local capacities. The article considers recent analysis of developments in the Pacific, and draws on research indicating the effectiveness of local justice and conflict mediation systems in East Timor. (excerpt).