Reconciliation and Democratisation: Outlining the Research Field

Abstract

The report presents an overview of institutional strategies to deal with the problem of past atrocities – trials, purges, truth commissions, restorative efforts, reforms, amnesty and amnesia. It discusses the main debates and dilemmas raised by these efforts, as reflected in the transitional justice literature. A central lesson drawn is that local ownership and legitimacy for the process is crucial for reconciliation to result. This, in turn, is to a large extent a function of the process through which the transitional justice institutions are established. It is in other words, not only a matter of what is done and when, but how and by whom.