The Interplay between Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in Peacebuilding

ended

The interplay between transitional justice and reconciliation processes in peacebuilding is still a rather empirically under researched issue. Existing literature on these processes and their relationship has remained normative, as most studies have lacked an examination of their overall effectiveness, and have not attempted to compare the impact such processes can have on society, at large, across different countries. The result has been a knowledge gap, which has produced decision-making based on weak data, ex-ante evaluation and speculation. Although there are some important insights from various single cases, we still need more in-depth empirical and theoretical inquiries, as well as comparison between cases, in order to explain how the interplay between transitional justice and reconciliation processes works in practice across different contexts. This research project aims to address this gap through a comparison of how various transitional justice and reconciliation mechanisms function and how their combination affects peacebuilding, either positively or negatively, across two countries—Algeria and Rwanda. Methodologically, the project’s design is that it is a comparative qualitative case study that proposes to use a novel methodological approach of participatory visual methods combining photo-voice and art, along with elicitation and auto-driving. This novel method in peacebuilding is to be combined with interviews and documentation to ensure triangulation of evidence.