Source: (2006) In Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Javier Mariezcurrena, Ed., Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century, Beyond Truth versus Justice. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Pg. 1-16.
“The universe of transitional justice can be broadly or narrowly defined. At its broadest, it involves anything that a society devises to deal with a legacy of conflict and/or widespread human rights violations, from changes in criminal codes to those in high school textbooks, from creation of memorials, museums and days of mourning, to police and court reform, to tackling the distributional inequities that underlie conflict. A narrow view can be criticized for ignoring root causes and privileging civil and political rights over economic, social and cultural rights, and by so doing marginalizing the needs of women and the poor. On the other hand, broadening the scope of what we mean by transitional justice to encompass the building of a just as well as peaceful society may make the effort so broad as to become meaningless.
This book takes a narrower view, centered on the two central aspects of truth and justice. We focus on a few methods and techniques: prosecutions and criminal investigations, truth commissions, vetting or cleansing of security forces, and, to some extent, formal reparations programs.” (excerpt)
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