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Key Text Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War

Author: R Mani
Date: 2002
Size: 246 pages

Summary

War leaves a terrible legacy and it hits the most vulnerable the hardest. Today it is mostly in the poorest countries where conflicts take place and over 80 per cent of the victims are civilians. But it is essential that the peace is 'positive'. Once the process of conflict resolution is underway, what can be done to restore justice?

A book by the Senior Strategy Advisor for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva examines how to restore justice in low-income post-conflict societies. It looks at the theories of justice, and using examples from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the results of their practical application during the period 1989 to 1999. The key focus of peace builders has been to deal with visible injustices committed before, during and after the conflict. These include, gross human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. These are the consequences of conflict. However, the aim of conflict resolution is to achieve long-term peace and security. To achieve this it is essential to address the symptoms and causes of conflict.

There is a connection missing between efforts to rebuild peace and methods of restoring justice. An integrated and holistic approach is required to link peacemaking and justice restoration efforts.

The gap between the theory and the practical application of justice is partly responsible for the failure to create long-lasting conflict resolution.
Peace builders impose solutions based on their own ‘Western’ values, which they assume to be universal, and believe is in the best interest of the community they are helping. Instead they should propose and facilitate solutions grounded in the local culture and its community values and restraints.
Justice is three-dimensional - legal, rectificatory and distributive. All dimensions are interrelated, and the complexity of each dimension must be recognised and accounted for.
When restoring the judicial system international actors must avoid being too technically focused and take into account the political context. They run the risk of creating standardised recommendations that cannot succeed.

The author calls for a greater examination and understanding of justice and a further unraveling of its complexity, in the context of peace building.

There is a need to bridge the cosmopolitan/ communitarian divide and to move away from the notion that Western culture is the universal culture in international agencies.
The body of work coming from developing countries that are involved in conflict and suffer from injustice must be increased. The lack of philosophical literature published in the West coming from these countries needs to be addressed.
Negative examples of peacemaking and peace building efforts in Ethiopia-Eritrea, Sierra Leone, Kosovo and Macedonia highlight the need for agencies to adopt the holistic and integrated approach to restoring justice and positive peace.

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Source: Mani, R. 2002, 'Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War', Polity Press, Cambridge in association with Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Author: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, http://www.hdcentre.org