Voices from the Ground: Learning about Transitional Justice on the Ground

Salina Kafle is a human rights lawyer based in Nepal. She is the Executive Director of the Human Rights and Justice Centre (HRJC), a non-profit organization that fights against torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and conflict-related sexual violence.

During her work, Salina has closely observed the Nepalese transitional justice process, designed legal strategies and advocated the related issues at the national and international levels. She has also worked as a consultant for various national and regional NGOs. She has written extensively in national journals on the issues of gross human rights violations. Salina shared with students her views on and lessons learned from the TJ process in Nepal and the remaining challenges.

‘Transitional justice mechanisms are paralyzed when based on flawed legislation. The politicization of transitional justice mechanisms derails the process of justice, fostering revictimization and entrenching impunity’ she says.

‘This discussion with Salina was a great way to open this series on Voices from the Ground. It offered us exposure to a transitional justice context that we hadn’t seen before in our courses which reaffirmed the variety of contexts in which transitional justice takes place, as well as the limitations of adopting a ‘one size, fits all approach’ to diverse situations’ underlines Ellen Murphy, currently enrolled in our MTJ.

John Caulker is the Founder and Executive Director of Fambul Tok International in Sierra Leone, an NGO that works with post-conflict countries to create space for community-led reconciliation and development that leads to peace.

John became a human rights activist as a student leader during the initial years of the conflict in Sierra Leone. Risking his life to document wartime atrocities, he infiltrated rebel camps disguised as a rebel to gather information and stories that he would then pass along to NGOs like Amnesty International, Article 19, and Human Rights Watch. He then founded the human rights NGO Forum of Conscience in 1996 and strove, as its Executive Director, to prevent recurring violence by connecting the root causes of Sierra Leone’s conflict to the need for the rural community to participate in the national decision-making process and by acknowledging wrongdoing to victims through reparation programmes.

John shared with students his experience regarding the operation of various TJ mechanisms in Sierra Leone in which he was involved as a civil society actor. He reflected on the opportunities and challenges of TJ mechanisms such as the Truth Commission and the Special Tribunal but also of community-based processes such as Fambul Tok.

Jose Carlos Moreira da Silva Filho is the former vice-president of the Amnesty Commission of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice that addressed human rights violations committed during the dictatorship.

He is a Professor of Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, a Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, as well a Guest Professor at the Master in Human Rights, Interculturality and Development of the Pablo de Olavide University and at the Master in Criminology, Criminal Policy and Criminal Law Sociology of the University of Barcelona.

Jose Carlos shared with our students his insights into the Brazilian transitional justice process regarding the last dictatorship and the important role of civil society in pushing forward it. He discussed specific aspects such as reparations and corporate accountability.

‘The process of transitional justice in Brazil began during the dictatorship and had as a major milestone the amnesty campaigns promoted in the 1970s, driven by various sectors of civil society. The Brazilian case is full of decisive and emblematic moments in which the ‘voices from the ground’ were decisive in carrying forward the struggles for truth, memory, justice, and reparation, which, in many cases, were in close harmony with several important institutional initiatives, especially those related to the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances, the Amnesty Commission, and the National Truth Commission’ says Jose Carlos.

‘His presentation also emphasized the importance of civil society mobilization and their ability to create political pressure which eventually led to the establishment of the three main transitional commissions in Brazil. In countries that may lack the political will to carry through reforms, it is nevertheless essential to acknowledge the impressive work of civil society organizations and their contribution to transitional justice’ explains Ellen.

Roberto Moreno is in charge of questions related to justice, prisoners and victims of terrorism at the Office of the Ombudsman for the Basque Country and was involved in the 2011-2012 restorative encounters between former members of the terrorist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and victims.

Roberto shared with students his participation in the 2011-2012 restorative encounters and talked about his personal experience of supporting, as an expert, the team of facilitators.

‘Restorative justice in post-conflict societies is a fundamental contribution to the policies of memory and transitional justice, as no one can delegitimise violence more than the perpetrator. On the other hand, the generosity of the victims of terrorism and serious crimes challenges us as a community towards reconciliation’ says Roberto Moreno.

‘It was fantastic to have an entire session dedicated to the topic of restorative justice which we did not get the chance to study in depth in our classes. Similarly to Fambul Tok, it was an approach to justice that moved away from the “traditional” notions of crime and punishment, and put a greater emphasis on addressing harms at multiple levels of society and moving towards healing and reconciliation’ explains Ellen.