Book Note: Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice after Civil Conflict, edited by Nigel Biggar

Source: (2004) Harvard Human Rights Journal. 17: 321-323. Downloaded 12 November 2004.

The 1990s brought in a wave of new democracies in the world, producing a host of
countries that are now entering into a phase of “transitional justice,â€? where they must
come to terms with past atrocities from governmental repression and civil conflict.
Burying the Past explores the tensions inherent in facing the past through a collection of
essays written by scholars, theologians, and practitioners. As the title suggests, the central
theme presented in the book is the tension between seeking justice for past wrongs and
seeking peace for future stability. Through the thirteen contributing authors, the book
explores the possibility (and arguably the necessity) of establishing peace through seeking
restorative justice. (excerpt).