ABSTRACT
Transitional justice provides a potential contribution to the statebuilding process that is both forward-looking and backward-looking. In post-conflict situations, there are often demands for justice for past human rights abuses. A range of transitional justice measures, such as trials, truth commissions, and reparations programs, have emerged around the globe as tools to meet these demands. Post-conflict governments, however, are often confronted with perpetrators who remain powerful and who may have been promised amnesty as a precondition of laying down their arms. A range of other practical and political considerations also frequently come into play in the construction of transitional justice policies. As such, there is potential tension between transitional justice and state-building with respect to how these measures are structured and the motivations of their architects.
Please find the full text of this Synthesis here.