Dealing with the past for a peaceful future?: analysing the effect of transitional justice instruments on trust in postconflict societies

Can dealing with a history of violent conflict through transitional justice help to rebuild social trust? Addressing three gaps in the current literature, we (1) analyse the effect of transitional justice on social trust, thereby going beyond the predominant focus on renewed violence; (2) use novel,...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fiedler, Charlotte (Author) ; Mross, Karina (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
In: International journal of transitional justice
Year: 2023, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 303-321
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Keywords:
Bürgerkrieg
Innerstaatlicher Konflikt
Konflikt
Auswirkung
Transitional Justice
Vertrauensbildende Maßnahme
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Amnestie
Entwicklungshilfe
Beispiel
Erde
Description
Summary:Can dealing with a history of violent conflict through transitional justice help to rebuild social trust? Addressing three gaps in the current literature, we (1) analyse the effect of transitional justice on social trust, thereby going beyond the predominant focus on renewed violence; (2) use novel, handcoded data to take donor support for transitional justice into account, a relevant but mostly overlooked factor; and (3) systematically investigate the combined effect of transitional justice instruments using qualitative comparative analysis. The analysis covers 24 cases in 19 postconflict countries over the period 1990–2010. Our results indicate that transitional justice needs to go beyond a narrow focus on victims or perpetrators to foster trust in postconflict societies. We find that combining victim restitution with amnesties or taking a broader, societal approach by focusing on truth-finding or bridge-building activities can increase trust. Moreover, international transitional justice support can play an important role in fostering trust, even in the absence of major national transitional justice processes.
Physical Description:Illustrationen
ISSN:1752-7724
DOI:10.1093/ijtj/ijad010