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Reviewed by:
  • The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions by ed. Jeremy Sarkin
  • Paolo Caroli (bio)
The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions ( Jeremy Sarkin ed., Intersentia, 2019), ISBN 9781780687940, 330 pages.

About thirty-five years ago, the expression "transition to democracy" was first used among political scientists. Some years later, the term "transitional justice" was introduced in the legal field. Despite its very short life as a disciplinary field, transitional justice today is under attack and, according to some, it should perhaps be considered outdated.

This occurs, paradoxically, while the spectrum and the definition of transitional justice are expanding.1 This refers both to the notion of "transition"—no longer just post-war or post-dictatorial—as well as to that of "justice," which today encompasses a diverse set of tools. Not just criminal law, amnesty, and truth commissions, but also reforms of police forces, the creation/demolition of monuments, memorials or museums, the establishment of commemorative days, or even the introduction of measures to contrast distributive inequities. Transitional justice has also changed its very ethos, from an alternative to a complementary tool with respect to criminal trials. Therefore, in the twenty-first century, transitional justice is no longer an alternative to impossible criminal prosecution—for de jure or de facto reasons—in societies undergoing a post-conflict or post-dictatorial political transition. It is no longer an exceptional instrument, but rather, it provides a series of mechanisms addressing structural problems related to economics or the environment, becoming "an enduring feature of political liberalization."2 Suddenly, transitional justice is not an "exotic" experience; it is not considered a phenomenon circumscribed to, for example, distant African or South American countries. Transitional justice and its arsenal of mechanisms have evolved into a field of practical and political intervention in everyday society. As noted, transitional justice has become a "political project."3

Not surprisingly, the tools of transitional justice are nowadays invoked in consolidated Western democracies to deal with their colonial past, the discrimination against ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals, the (mis) representation of women4 and endemic corruption.5 Moreover, transitional justice scholars have been involved in the major [End Page 218] public debate around the current hot topic of the removal/contextualization of statues and monuments. Would it then be too odd to imagine, for instance, a truth and reconciliation commission for dealing with structural racism in the police forces in the USA? Probably not. Transitional justice has also matured and evolved to see the emergence of a real "establishment" of NGOs, ad hoc centers, academic projects, journals, tenures and conferences.6 In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council appointed transitional justice scholar, Pablo De Greiff, as first Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence. As de Greiff makes clear, criminal justice is but one goal in the major emancipatory framework of transitional justice, which aims at promoting a just social order.7

Simultaneously, as mentioned above, in this widespread climate of anxiety and pessimism around the future of human rights and justice for gross human rights violations, transitional justice is facing a crisis. After the creative euphoria of the so-called second phase,8 which began in the 1980s in response to amnesty laws and the impossibility of criminal prosecution, the most recent years have seen a growing nostalgia for retribution, particularly among victims' organizations, NGOs and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICtHR).9 These retributive claims are based on different considerations, which cannot be summarized here, and which go beyond the claim for punishment of the perpetrators. However, these considerations imply that the "quality" of the truth deriving from the criminal trial is far better than the one produced, for example, by truth commissions.10 Finally, transitional justice mechanisms are accused of failing to tackle the socio-economic roots of conflicts, in [End Page 219] particular those related to globalization and affected by Western capitalism. In fact, while "transitional justice and truth commissions are now a strand characterising political globalisation, an inevitable part of the international call and response characterising conflict and authoritarian aftermaths. (…) The question ultimately is whether transitional justice has become the conscience of transitional...

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