In this video playlist, participants from our dialogue on transitional justice in contemporary conflict resolution, discuss why traditional justice mechanisms are no longer sufficient to address the scale and nature of mass atrocities, and why achieving lasting peace requires a justice based approach to redress and accountability. Participants explore how survivors of conflict related sexual violence, including Yazidi, Syrian and Ukrainian women and men, are reshaping how justice is delivered, by leading survivor led NGOs. The critical importance of early, survivor led redress is examined, with participants highlighting how co-developing justice measures with those affected, rather than consulting them only at the end, is essential to meaningful accountability. All participants emphasise that rebuilding trust and delivering lasting peace depends on ensuring victims’ voices remain heard and visible, and that societies must undergo deep reflection on the root causes of atrocities in order to prevent their recurrence.
Bernard Duhaime opened the dialogue by tracing the origins of transitional justice as a response to massive human rights violations. He warns of the weakening of collective governance at a multilateral level, alongside a wider erosion of democratic principles, the rule of law and civil space.
Dr Kateryna Busol (Head of Ukraine Programme, International Centre for Transitional Justice), Prof. Bernard Duhaime (UN Special Rapporteur on promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-recurrence), and Anna Myriam Roccatello (Deputy Executive Director and Director of Programs, International Centre for Transitional Justice) discuss the key points.
Kateryna Busol
Redress, especially for particularly vulnerable survivors, such as those of conflict-related sexual violence, should be provided as early as possible. In my dear Ukraine, it’s seeing justice, vision and measures being co-developed and co-implemented with survivors. Not engaging them at the end of the process, not engaging them just for the assessment, but making sure that we are led by their vision. I think we have importantly shifted from this presumption that survivors of sexual violence are often affected by stigma, that they talk years later. We have shifted from that to seeing how the Yazidi women, how the Syrian women and men, how the Ukrainian women and men are ready to not only speak about the experience of horrendous and repeated sexual violence. But they’re also forming their survivor-led NGOs, and they contribute crucially to both domestic justice initiatives, but also to international advocacy.
Bernard Duhaime
Transitional justice developed in response to challenges addressing massive human rights violations after armed conflicts or authoritarian rule. We’ve seen a progressive bypassing of collective decision making at the multilateral level. And clearly today we are probably moving from bypassing to weakening of the collective governance. On the front of democracy, in addition to shrinking civil space, there is a gradual erosion of the rule of law and of democratic principles. The international community must not wait for these trends to stabilise before acting. It must recommit now to funding, defending and staying inside institutions that this moment is testing.
Anna Myriam Rocatello
In situations where mass atrocities have been committed, our traditional mechanisms and tools to achieve justice are simply not sufficient anymore. And the sheer number and the nature of the violations and crimes committed require a deep rethinking of society, the reasons why those atrocities were committed. And the different ways in which we can and we must redress the harm suffered by the victims. The innovation, the relentless struggle, the voice of the victims are not silenced. They may be repressed, there is an incredibly high cost that they pay in order to remain heard and visible. But there will be a time, and there is always a time when these instances will resurface and the conditions will be better to provide responses and redress.