Bell, C. & O’Rourke, C. (2007). ‘Does Feminism Need a Theory of Transitional Justice? An
Introductory Essay’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice, vol. 1, pp. 23-44.
Adding women?
"Transitional justice is typically described as a package of measures which societies emerging from violent conflict use to pursue accountability" p.24
"As the word ‘transitional’ suggests, ‘transitional justice’ is both justice with an instrumental political purpose (to effect transition) and a differentiated form of justice for a peculiar and time-limited period." p.24
Many transitional justice mechanisms come from negotiations for peace in conflict areas, which are largely male affairs. p.25
"Negotiation processes are also gendered at a deeper level in that they typically focus on ceasefires followed by complex divisions of power between divided groups through innovative electoral and governmental arrangements and/or divisions of territory" p.25
"The structuring of negotiations around narrow conceptions of ‘the problem’ and the male bias at the negotiating table reinforce each other, with women moving all too easily from being ‘pawns of war’ to ‘pawns of peace.’" p.25
Adding Gender to accountability mechanisms
The transnational feminist mobilisation of the 1990's "had a very clear relevance to transitional justice, as it sought to expose the widespread and systematic occurrence of sexual violence in situations of violent conflict." p.26
"Central to these changes was the recognition of women’s experiences of sexual violence in armed conflict as amongst the most serious crimes of war by including rape within the definitions of a ‘grave breach’ of the Geneva Conventions, of crimes against humanity and of genocide." p.26
"The 2004 United Nations Secretary General’s Report on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice identifies addressing women’s experiences of domestic violence and targeting violence in the public sphere as priority for ‘filling the rule of law vacuum." p.28
Transitional programmes fail in these areas: "the exclusion of women from the process of designing reparations programmes, the definition of violence to be repaired, the criteria for defining beneficiaries, the benefits given by way of reparations and the implementation of reparations programmes." p.29
To broader negotiation processes
More women need to be involved in the peace process 50/50
Gender-specific experiences of conflict need to be addressed
"It has been argued that presuming the support of women for transitional justice mechanisms, without consulting women on the creation and design of these mechanisms, risks undermining their effectiveness, particularly given the predominance of households headed by women in many post-conflict societies" p.31
Including women also needs to avoid homogenising the women's experience. 'meta-conflict' is described as ‘multiple disagreements over what kind of conflict it is, and as to whether it is ‘‘one’’ or ‘‘many’’. p.31
"Different meta-conflict stances will be underwritten by different experiences of the conflict and will produce different ideas as to the necessary ingredients for resolving the conflict." p.31
Adding feminism?
"Injuries related to narrow understanding of ‘political violence’ are privileged at the expense of socio-economic injuries suffered predominantly by women as internally displaced persons, heads of households and refugees" p.34
"It has been argued that reforms have concentrated on women’s experiences of sexual violence, and silenced other important aspects of women’s experiences of conflict" p.34
"the increased participation of women does not equate in any simple way with a feminist reshaping of either peace processes or transitional justice mechanisms" p.34
Transitional Justice as Ordinary Justice
"The theory of transitional justice as ordinary justice views transitional justice as an imperfect version of ordinary criminal justice" p.34
"The ‘justice gap’ is not justified, merely tolerated in recognition of the need for justice to be pursued. Within this conception of transitional justice, women can define their injuries for themselves and can push for accountability" p.36
Transitional Justice as Liberalising Justice
"The theory of transitional justice as liberalizing justice recognizes the partiality of transitional justice mechanisms, but views this partiality as theoretically justified by the peculiar nature of the transitional moment and the liberal end goals of the transition" p.37
"The ‘justice gap’ is therefore rationalized in terms of a set of rule of law requirements that can be attenuated where they can be shown to undermine, rather than assist, the transition to a liberal democratic future where a more conventional notion of the rule of law prevails." p.37
"there is a core tension ‘in the use of law to advance transformation as opposed to its role to conventional legality,’ which plays out in questions over how far an extraordinary conceptualization of criminal justice is permissible and what it is that determines the boundaries of its extraordinary manifestations" p.37
Transitional Justice as Restorative Justice
"This is a conception of justice which rejects a necessary relationship between accountability and criminal law processes, but views justice as restoring broken relationships and communities." p.40
"Transitional justice as restorative justice posits mechanisms such as TCs as proffering alternative forms of accountability, through flexible processes of conversation and negotiation." p.40
"Transitional justice as restorative justice has some attractions for those seeking to construct a feminist theory of transitional justice. Restorative justice would seem to enable a move beyond the rather masculine discourse of crime and punishment towards a notion of repairing relationships." p.40
"As feminist critiques of restorative justice in domestic law settings have addressed, the notion of ‘restoring’ that lies at the heart of this conception of justice speaks of a return to a set of relationships that for women may have been fundamentally unjust." p.41
Toward a feminist theory of transitional justice?
The authors suggest that the future of feminist theorisation of transitional justice "lies in understanding the feminist theoretical engagement with transitional justice in terms of a broader feminist theory of transition." p.42
"the importance of prioritizing socioeconomic issues in feminist interventions into processes of transition, both by influencing the definitions of ‘harms’ to be addressed post-settlement and by challenging the capitalist development which generally unfolds." p.42
Transitional justice needs to include non-elite actors and should fight the assumptions that "women’s mobilization during transition guarantees a sustained political presence post-transition" p.42
Post-war, women are vulnerable in the private sphere from family and reproduction issues, reinstated gender roles and violence.
Adding women?
"Transitional justice is typically described as a package of measures which societies emerging from violent conflict use to pursue accountability" p.24
"As the word ‘transitional’ suggests, ‘transitional justice’ is both justice with an instrumental political purpose (to effect transition) and a differentiated form of justice for a peculiar and time-limited period." p.24
Many transitional justice mechanisms come from negotiations for peace in conflict areas, which are largely male affairs. p.25
"Negotiation processes are also gendered at a deeper level in that they typically focus on ceasefires followed by complex divisions of power between divided groups through innovative electoral and governmental arrangements and/or divisions of territory" p.25
"The structuring of negotiations around narrow conceptions of ‘the problem’ and the male bias at the negotiating table reinforce each other, with women moving all too easily from being ‘pawns of war’ to ‘pawns of peace.’" p.25
Adding Gender to accountability mechanisms
The transnational feminist mobilisation of the 1990's "had a very clear relevance to transitional justice, as it sought to expose the widespread and systematic occurrence of sexual violence in situations of violent conflict." p.26
"Central to these changes was the recognition of women’s experiences of sexual violence in armed conflict as amongst the most serious crimes of war by including rape within the definitions of a ‘grave breach’ of the Geneva Conventions, of crimes against humanity and of genocide." p.26
"The 2004 United Nations Secretary General’s Report on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice identifies addressing women’s experiences of domestic violence and targeting violence in the public sphere as priority for ‘filling the rule of law vacuum." p.28
Transitional programmes fail in these areas: "the exclusion of women from the process of designing reparations programmes, the definition of violence to be repaired, the criteria for defining beneficiaries, the benefits given by way of reparations and the implementation of reparations programmes." p.29
To broader negotiation processes
More women need to be involved in the peace process 50/50
Gender-specific experiences of conflict need to be addressed
"It has been argued that presuming the support of women for transitional justice mechanisms, without consulting women on the creation and design of these mechanisms, risks undermining their effectiveness, particularly given the predominance of households headed by women in many post-conflict societies" p.31
Including women also needs to avoid homogenising the women's experience. 'meta-conflict' is described as ‘multiple disagreements over what kind of conflict it is, and as to whether it is ‘‘one’’ or ‘‘many’’. p.31
"Different meta-conflict stances will be underwritten by different experiences of the conflict and will produce different ideas as to the necessary ingredients for resolving the conflict." p.31
Adding feminism?
"Injuries related to narrow understanding of ‘political violence’ are privileged at the expense of socio-economic injuries suffered predominantly by women as internally displaced persons, heads of households and refugees" p.34
"It has been argued that reforms have concentrated on women’s experiences of sexual violence, and silenced other important aspects of women’s experiences of conflict" p.34
"the increased participation of women does not equate in any simple way with a feminist reshaping of either peace processes or transitional justice mechanisms" p.34
Transitional Justice as Ordinary Justice
"The theory of transitional justice as ordinary justice views transitional justice as an imperfect version of ordinary criminal justice" p.34
"The ‘justice gap’ is not justified, merely tolerated in recognition of the need for justice to be pursued. Within this conception of transitional justice, women can define their injuries for themselves and can push for accountability" p.36
Transitional Justice as Liberalising Justice
"The theory of transitional justice as liberalizing justice recognizes the partiality of transitional justice mechanisms, but views this partiality as theoretically justified by the peculiar nature of the transitional moment and the liberal end goals of the transition" p.37
"The ‘justice gap’ is therefore rationalized in terms of a set of rule of law requirements that can be attenuated where they can be shown to undermine, rather than assist, the transition to a liberal democratic future where a more conventional notion of the rule of law prevails." p.37
"there is a core tension ‘in the use of law to advance transformation as opposed to its role to conventional legality,’ which plays out in questions over how far an extraordinary conceptualization of criminal justice is permissible and what it is that determines the boundaries of its extraordinary manifestations" p.37
Transitional Justice as Restorative Justice
"This is a conception of justice which rejects a necessary relationship between accountability and criminal law processes, but views justice as restoring broken relationships and communities." p.40
"Transitional justice as restorative justice posits mechanisms such as TCs as proffering alternative forms of accountability, through flexible processes of conversation and negotiation." p.40
"Transitional justice as restorative justice has some attractions for those seeking to construct a feminist theory of transitional justice. Restorative justice would seem to enable a move beyond the rather masculine discourse of crime and punishment towards a notion of repairing relationships." p.40
"As feminist critiques of restorative justice in domestic law settings have addressed, the notion of ‘restoring’ that lies at the heart of this conception of justice speaks of a return to a set of relationships that for women may have been fundamentally unjust." p.41
Toward a feminist theory of transitional justice?
The authors suggest that the future of feminist theorisation of transitional justice "lies in understanding the feminist theoretical engagement with transitional justice in terms of a broader feminist theory of transition." p.42
"the importance of prioritizing socioeconomic issues in feminist interventions into processes of transition, both by influencing the definitions of ‘harms’ to be addressed post-settlement and by challenging the capitalist development which generally unfolds." p.42
Transitional justice needs to include non-elite actors and should fight the assumptions that "women’s mobilization during transition guarantees a sustained political presence post-transition" p.42
Post-war, women are vulnerable in the private sphere from family and reproduction issues, reinstated gender roles and violence.
Comments
Post a Comment