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Policy Briefs by Elin Skaar
Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy ... more Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy all over the world. During periods of authoritarianism or civil war, the military in Latin America has been responsible for extensive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Since the reintroduction of democracy in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, the military has gradually been brought back under civilian rule. The balance of power between military and civil political actors has shifted. How and in which ways have civilian governments curtailed military power? What is the relationship between the military and civilian governments today? And what new roles have been assigned to or taken on by the military in areas such as maintaining national security?
Based on a review of the literature on civil-military relations in Latin America, this paper explores three main themes: (1) the military as a political actor; (2) the military as an economic actor; and (3) changing military self-perceptions and roles in a democratic era.
Papers by Elin Skaar
Oxford University Press eBooks, Feb 22, 2024
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2011
Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez posed this pointed question at the turn of the millenn... more Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez posed this pointed question at the turn of the millennium. A decade later, Alexandra Huneeus drew attention to another apparent paradox: “Why did so rightsaverse a judiciary suddenly place itself in the thick of the country’s most contentious rights issue, at times pushing beyond the government in its zeal for prosecution of the very claims it once denied?” (2009, 3).
CLACSO eBooks, Oct 1, 2015
Latin American Politics and Society, 2001
OXFORD STUDIES IN DEMOCRATIZATION Series editor: Laurence Whitehead Oxford Studies in Democratiza... more OXFORD STUDIES IN DEMOCRATIZATION Series editor: Laurence Whitehead Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes will concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization ...
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Sep 6, 2022
Precision manufacturing, 2018
International Affairs, 2016
In general, this book is clearly written and the authors systematically guide readers through the... more In general, this book is clearly written and the authors systematically guide readers through their narrative. It can certainly be regarded as one of the best recent examples of transitional justice research.
Samisk senters skriftserie
Artikkel i publikasjonen Om den norske sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonen: foreløpige funn.
International Journal of Transitional Justice, Feb 2, 2023
This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of raci... more This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of racism, using Norway as a case study. It examines the background for the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2018 to investigate the consequences of historical and ongoing assimilation of the indigenous Sami people and two national minorities. I argue that although the Norwegian TRC was established in direct response to an initiative from the Sami Parliament, its successful creation was a result of political negotiations involving a series of actors, including Sami activists, mainstream politicians and various interest organizations. The protagonists pushing for a truth commission were in turn encouraged and inspired by a global focus on transitional justice, truth commissions and indigenous rights. Based on a desk study, interviews and media reports, and applying a theoretical framework, emphasizing agency and norm diffusion, I argue that while the Norwegian TRC has explicitly used truth commissions elsewhere in the world – particularly the Canadian TRC – as models, it is quite unique in terms of mandate and design.
This article is about judicial reform in the Southern Cone in the 1990s. It shows that for Argent... more This article is about judicial reform in the Southern Cone in the 1990s. It shows that for Argentina and Chile, procedural cEste artículo trata sobre las reformas judiciales en Sudamérica, durante los años /n90. Muestra que tanto en el caso de la Argentina como en el de Chile, las reformas a los códigos de procedimiento estuvieron motivadas por tres factores centrales, vinculados con el doble proceso de democratización y liberalización económica: i) la preocupación con la violación de derechos humanos que provenía de los pasados regímenes autoritarios; ii) el deseo de crear ambientes legales estables tanto para los derechos de propiedad como para la inversión extranjera; y iii) la preocupación pública en torno a tasas de criminalidad cada vez más altas. Las reformas constitucionales que afectaron a las Cortes Supremas tanto en la Argentina como en Chile estuvieron vinculadas por razones estrictamente auto-interesadas. En última instancia, estas reformas fueron el resultado de co...
Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift
Norwegian social thought on Latin America, 2016
Nordic Journal of Human Rights, Sep 7, 2003
ISBN 82-8062-039-7 This report is also available at: www.cmi.no/public/pub2002 Indexing terms Dev... more ISBN 82-8062-039-7 This report is also available at: www.cmi.no/public/pub2002 Indexing terms Development aid
Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy ... more Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy all over the world. During periods of authoritarianism or civil war, the military in Latin America has been responsible for extensive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Since the reintroduction of democracy in the region in the 1980s and 1990s, the military has gradually been brought back under civilian rule. The balance of power between military and civil political actors has shifted. How and in which ways have civilian governments curtailed military power? What is the relationship between the military and civilian governments today? And what new roles have been assigned to or taken on by the military in areas such as maintaining national security?
Based on a review of the literature on civil-military relations in Latin America, this paper explores three main themes: (1) the military as a political actor; (2) the military as an economic actor; and (3) changing military self-perceptions and roles in a democratic era.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Feb 22, 2024
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2011
Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez posed this pointed question at the turn of the millenn... more Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez posed this pointed question at the turn of the millennium. A decade later, Alexandra Huneeus drew attention to another apparent paradox: “Why did so rightsaverse a judiciary suddenly place itself in the thick of the country’s most contentious rights issue, at times pushing beyond the government in its zeal for prosecution of the very claims it once denied?” (2009, 3).
CLACSO eBooks, Oct 1, 2015
Latin American Politics and Society, 2001
OXFORD STUDIES IN DEMOCRATIZATION Series editor: Laurence Whitehead Oxford Studies in Democratiza... more OXFORD STUDIES IN DEMOCRATIZATION Series editor: Laurence Whitehead Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes will concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization ...
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Sep 6, 2022
Precision manufacturing, 2018
International Affairs, 2016
In general, this book is clearly written and the authors systematically guide readers through the... more In general, this book is clearly written and the authors systematically guide readers through their narrative. It can certainly be regarded as one of the best recent examples of transitional justice research.
Samisk senters skriftserie
Artikkel i publikasjonen Om den norske sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonen: foreløpige funn.
International Journal of Transitional Justice, Feb 2, 2023
This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of raci... more This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of racism, using Norway as a case study. It examines the background for the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2018 to investigate the consequences of historical and ongoing assimilation of the indigenous Sami people and two national minorities. I argue that although the Norwegian TRC was established in direct response to an initiative from the Sami Parliament, its successful creation was a result of political negotiations involving a series of actors, including Sami activists, mainstream politicians and various interest organizations. The protagonists pushing for a truth commission were in turn encouraged and inspired by a global focus on transitional justice, truth commissions and indigenous rights. Based on a desk study, interviews and media reports, and applying a theoretical framework, emphasizing agency and norm diffusion, I argue that while the Norwegian TRC has explicitly used truth commissions elsewhere in the world – particularly the Canadian TRC – as models, it is quite unique in terms of mandate and design.
This article is about judicial reform in the Southern Cone in the 1990s. It shows that for Argent... more This article is about judicial reform in the Southern Cone in the 1990s. It shows that for Argentina and Chile, procedural cEste artículo trata sobre las reformas judiciales en Sudamérica, durante los años /n90. Muestra que tanto en el caso de la Argentina como en el de Chile, las reformas a los códigos de procedimiento estuvieron motivadas por tres factores centrales, vinculados con el doble proceso de democratización y liberalización económica: i) la preocupación con la violación de derechos humanos que provenía de los pasados regímenes autoritarios; ii) el deseo de crear ambientes legales estables tanto para los derechos de propiedad como para la inversión extranjera; y iii) la preocupación pública en torno a tasas de criminalidad cada vez más altas. Las reformas constitucionales que afectaron a las Cortes Supremas tanto en la Argentina como en Chile estuvieron vinculadas por razones estrictamente auto-interesadas. En última instancia, estas reformas fueron el resultado de co...
Norsk statsvitenskapelig tidsskrift
Norwegian social thought on Latin America, 2016
Nordic Journal of Human Rights, Sep 7, 2003
ISBN 82-8062-039-7 This report is also available at: www.cmi.no/public/pub2002 Indexing terms Dev... more ISBN 82-8062-039-7 This report is also available at: www.cmi.no/public/pub2002 Indexing terms Development aid
Judicial Independence and Human Rights in Latin America, 2011
At the beginning of the millennium, the fieldwork for this book pursued the question of why the U... more At the beginning of the millennium, the fieldwork for this book pursued the question of why the Uruguayan courts lagged behind their Chilean and Argentine counterparts in ensuring accountability for past human rights violations. A decade later, much has changed, and an equally interesting question arises: why did Uruguayan judges in the mid-2000s finally begin complying with international obligations to hold human rights perpetrators to account?
When Truth Commission Models Travel: Explaining the Norwegian Case, 2023
This article explores 'late justice' in the context of settler democracies with a history of raci... more This article explores 'late justice' in the context of settler democracies with a history of racism, using Norway as a case study. It examines the background for the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2018 to investigate the consequences of historical and ongoing assimilation of the indigenous Sami people and two national minorities. I argue that although the Norwegian TRC was established in direct response to an initiative from the Sami Parliament, its successful creation was a result of political negotiations involving a series of actors, including Sami activists, mainstream politicians and various interest organizations. The protagonists pushing for a truth commission were in turn encouraged and inspired by a global focus on transitional justice, truth commissions and indigenous rights. Based on a desk study, interviews and media reports, and applying a theoretical framework emphasizing agency and norm diffusion, I argue that while the Norwegian TRC has explicitly used truth commissions elsewhere in the world-particularly the Canadian TRCas models, it is quite unique in terms of mandate and design.
RESUMEN: La justicia postransicional se inició en el Cono Sur de América Latina a mediados de la ... more RESUMEN: La justicia postransicional se inició en el Cono Sur de América Latina a mediados de la década de 1990 y gradualmente se ha expandido a otros países que buscan afrontar violaciones de derechos humanos cometidas durante los regímenes autoritarios que dominaron el continente desde la década de 1970 hasta inicios de la década de 1990. Para diferenciar los juicios de la transición de los juicios que se llevaron a cabo años después durante la fase de consolidación democrática, este artículo desarrolla un marco teórico que explica las variaciones en la tendencia a juzgar a los militares por graves violaciones de derechos humanos (por ejemplo, el número de juicios) a lo largo del tiempo y entre países. El argumento principal que aquí se presenta es que las reformas constitucionales han hecho que los jueces latinoamericanos sean más propensos a perseguir a los militares por violaciones de derechos humanos porque los jueces ahora poseen más independencia del Poder Ejecutivo y, además, porque la jerarquía del sistema judicial se ha suavizado, haciendo que los jueces de primeras instancias sean menos dependientes de sus superiores. Como resultado, los jueces –especialmente aquellos afines a la agenda de los derechos humanos– pueden promover procesos judiciales con más energía que antes.
ABStRACt: Post-transitional justice in Latin America started in the Southern Cone in the mid-1990s and gradually spread to a number of countries which are seeking to address the human rights violations committed during the authoritarian regimes that dominated the continent from 1970s to the early 1990s. to distinguish trials at the time of transition from trials that take place years into the consolidation phase, this article develops a theoretical framework that explains variations in the propensity to prosecute the military for gross human rights violations (i.e., the number of trials) across time and across countries. the main argument presented here is that constitutional reforms have made Latin American judges more prone to prosecute the military for past human right violations because judges now enjoy more independence from powerful Executives and the hierarchy of the judicial system has loosened, making lower court judges less dependent on their superiors. As a result, judges, especially those sympathetic to a human rights agenda, can push prosecutions more forcefully than they could before.
SKAAR, E. (2012). ¿Puede la independencia judicial explicar la justicia postransicional?. AméRica Latina Hoy, 61, 14-48.
Book, 2022
Truth commission recommendations are critical to their legacies, yet there is little research ex... more Truth commission recommendations are critical to their legacies, yet
there is little research examining their fates. Based on fieldwork that is
unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first
systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the
recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions.
Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission
recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided
regarding how the internal dynamics of truth commissions, as well as the
political, social and economic context in which they operate, influence
how recommendations are formulated. The authors then explore how
the nature of these recommendations themselves, along with the
aforementioned factors, influence which recommendations are actually
implemented. The conclusion considers the findings’ relevance for the
crafting of future truth commission recommendations and reflects upon
how the formulation and implementation of these recommendations
shape the impact of truth commissions on societies emerging from
periods of violence and repression.
Beyond Words Vol. II is a unique collection of 11 Latin American country
studies covering all 13 formal truth commissions established in this
region that submitted their final reports between 1984 and 2014. Based
on qualitative original data and a common analytical framework, the
main focus of each of the country chapters is threefold: (1) to provide a
brief background to the truth commission(s); (2) to provide a detailed
account of the formulation of the truth commission’s recommendations;
and (3) to analyze the implementation record of the recommendations,
taking into account the actors and factors that have aided – or
obstructed – the implementation process.
