The transitions of transitional justice: Mapping the waves from promise to practice.

Source: (2013) Journal of Human Rights, 12:198–216.

Transitional justice is facing a kind of inverted “paradox of success”: The less effective
its mechanisms seem to be in their efforts to build democracy and peace, the more we
are demanding from them. This article chronicles the intellectual evolution of the field
and its current efforts to address what are perceived to be the conceptual shortcomings
of the approach. In doing so, it shows that to overcome its perceived limitations, and
measure more precisely the effectiveness of its mechanisms, scholars are looking outside
the paradigm to address how transitional justice may be more successful and lasting
in repairing and restoring states and societies wrought with violence and human rights
abuses. Inmapping out the “transitions” of transitional justice and contemporary efforts
to move the field forward, I argue that to better understand its effectiveness, we need to
examine its impact on not only the short-term tensions of addressing victims’ claims but
also on the long-term goals of creating conditions that secure the peace and prosperity
of peoples. (author’s abstract)