Introduction: new paths in reconciliation, transitional and Indigenous justice (original) (raw)

2018, Journal of Global Ethics

The tools we have used to fashion justice have changed greatly over the past seventy years, and the changes have altered our understanding of what justice amounts to. The International Military Tribunals, pursued at Nuremberg and Tokyo, were conceived as a form of retribution to correct the injustices of the Second World War. These were paired with the victors' visions of reconstruction: the Marshall Plan and the Occupation of Japan. Many years later, in the wake of empire, different paradigms were conceived to fill the need for new paths forward. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) provided a new route in 1995 centred upon truth-telling, amnesty, and forgiveness. These dimensions of reconciliation charted the path of restorative (rather than retributive) justice to ground a transition to democracy following the decades-long horrors of Apartheid. Broadly speaking, political reconciliation is concerned with the pursuit and realisation of respectful relationships between two or more communities in conflict, or relationships of oppression by one group over the other(s). In a world where oppression, repression, and persecution remain widespread, formal apologies, memorials, trials, and reparations have become commonplace. These and other processes of reconciliation, reclamation and (broadly) of transitional justice are the newer political tools that this issue of Journal of Global Ethics provides an opportunity to assess. Our willingness to face our histories and contemporary challenges in ways that create real space for new beginnings is pertinent to projects of political reconciliation and transitional justice. More precisely, being honest about these histories, and about the extent to which these histories continue to bear on the lives that communities are able to live today, can facilitate the forging of new relationships and new possibilities for the future. Committing to fostering processes and conditions that allow for healing, restitution, and (ultimately) justice in both post-conflict and settler-colonial societies remains critical. Such a commitment requires that we are willing to listen to the voices of those who have endured, and who continue to endure, many of these horrors. We need to be willing to listen to those intimately involved in existing processes of political reconciliation and transitional justice on the ground, as well as those who have played a role in framing those processes. We need to provide space for these voices, bringing their perspectives together in ways that can help to shape the work of creating communities that live together on just and peaceful terms. This special issue is, in one sense at least, an attempt to air important questions and contribute to conversations. We bring scholars concerned with the concepts and ideas of reconciliation and transitional justice alongside the voices of scholars and activists concerned with how these concepts and ideas have played out, and continue to play out, on the ground. In particular, we provide the necessary space for the voices of Indigenous scholars and activists (and their allies) to allow us to better understand how our theories and applications of reconciliation and transitional justice may succeed, may fall short and, ultimately, may be improved within and beyond settler-colonial states. At the very least, this issue attempts to support a platform upon which further and deeper conversations can be built. We begin with a collection of commentary upon Colleen Murphy's book The Conceptual Foundations of Transitional Justice, published by Cambridge University Press, 2017. Sirkku