Overview

Transitional justice as understood nowadays, “the range of judicial and non-judicial mechanisms dealing with a legacy of large-scale abuses of human rights and/or violations of international humanitarian law”, had its early days after the II World War with the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials. Since then, transitional justice has evolved becoming more complex in terms of mechanisms and goals. All this change though has not come without its challenges. For instance, should societies emerging from violent conflict privilege peace over justice? How to balance the need to overcome the past with the need to acknowledge past wrongdoings? In this class, we will explore the main debates in transitional justice, paying particular attention to one of its main goals: the redress of human rights violations.

Recommended Reading
Bronwyn Anne Leebaw (2008) "The Irreconcilable Goals of Transitional Justice." Human Rights Quarterly, 30 (1): 95-118.
Tricia D. Olsen, Leigh A. Payne, Andrew G. Reiter (2010) “The Justice Balance: When Transitional Justice Improves Human Rights and Democracy”, Human Rights Quarterly, 32 (4).


[Registration is free, but mandatory]

Nota biográfica

Natália Bueno is a postdoctoral researcher at "CROME - Crossed Memories, Politics of Silence: The Colonial-Liberation Wars in Postcolonial Times", coordinated by Miguel Cardina and funded by the European Research Council (ERC). She holds a PhD in International Politics and Conflict Resolution from the University of Coimbra (CES/FEUC), a Master's degree in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a Bachelor's in International Relations from the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Her doctoral research contributes to the scholarship on post-conflict and peacebuilding by offering an operationalized conceptualization of reconciliation with indicators at the observable level. Natália applies this conceptualization to the case of Mozambique, challenging the conventional wisdom that the country was once reconciled. She is also a former visiting researcher at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University, and at the Policy Analysis Center, Eduardo Mondlane University. Her research interests include colonial-liberation wars, memory studies, peacebuilding, reconciliation, and transitional justice.

Org: Doctoral Programme Human Rights in Contemporary Societies