Dealing with Demons: Justice and Reconciliation

After conflict has ceased, societies often lack the mechanisms and institutions for upholding the rule of law and dealing with past abuses—processes that are crucial to rebuilding. Justice and reconciliation, in tandem, must be seen as a central pillar of any assistance for postconflict reconstruction and should receive priority attention early and throughout the life of an operation. Although various efforts to achieve justice and reconciliation can differ greatly in nature, they both establish processes to address grievances, both past and present, in hope of forging a more peaceful future. The past decade of international experience in postconflict assistance suggests that substantial gaps exist in the ability of the United States and the international community to assist in these areas rapidly as well as to develop an integrated strategy to achieve justice and reconciliation. The explosion of lawlessness, corruption, and crime that often accompanies postconflict vacuums can undermine all gains that international assistance makes. Assistance to establish justice must therefore be timely in order to be effective. Indeed, this area has been one of poor performance, if not outright failure, in many interventions.

Grouping the concepts of justice and reconciliation together may strike some as inconsistent, but the two share a common objective—addressing past abuses and ongoing grievances arising from the conflict. Past atrocities in postconflict societies, such as ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, mass amputations in Sierra Leone, and politically motivated hate crimes in East Timor and Haiti, have demonstrated that the most critical need in the earliest phases of a postconflict operation is often public security, along with the rule of law. Furthermore, postconflict societies often require the introduction of accountability and restorative justice mechanisms to break cycles of impunity and violence. Not only do these procedures prevent the recurrence of conflict, they also provide a valuable forum for individuals and communities to feel a sense of closure and to begin healing old wounds. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu noted, "We could not make the journey from a past marked by conflict, injustice, oppression, and exploitation to a new and democratic dispensation characterised by a culture of respect for human rights without coming face-to-face with our recent history. No one has disputed that. The differences of opinion have been about how we should deal with that past; how we should go about coming to terms with it." ¹

To date, international assistance in the justice arena has focused too narrowly on reestablishing a functioning police force to maintain public safety. This task is indeed critical, but the international community must take a much more comprehensive approach to justice and reconciliation for the intervention to succeed. Specifically, this pillar of postconflict reconstruction should include six key elements: (1) law enforcement instruments that are effective and respectful of human rights; (2) an impartial, open, and accountable judicial system; (3) a fair constitution and body of law; (4) mechanisms for monitoring and upholding human rights; (5) a humane corrections system; and (6) formal and informal reconciliation mechanisms for dealing with past abuses and resolving grievances arising from conflict.

Policymakers and practitioners should make every effort to build on functioning indigenous practices, laws, and institutions that existed before the conflict. Indeed, the guiding principle for international assistance in the justice and reconciliation arena should always be to seek to empower local actors and to promote the building of sustainable indigenous capacity while reinforcing respect for human rights and international norms. In practice, indigenous justice and reconciliation systems must be assessed early in the process to determine what can be salvaged and used and what must be discarded and replaced. Local actors must be given a meaningful role in the design and implementation of programs in order to help ensure sustainability once the period of extraordinary international intervention ends. Given their poor track record on these issues, the United States and the international community urgently need to reform existing capacities to promote the combined goal...