A future without forgiveness: beyond reconciliation in transitional justice

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Abstract

This article questions the promotion of reconciliation in transitional justice contexts. The article puts forward a critique of reconciliation in practice and questions mainstream definitions of reconciliation. The principle that these forms of reconciliation are desirable is also questioned. It is argued that examples of genuine reconciliation are difficult to find, that the promotion of reconciliation is frequently emphasised at the expense of substantive societal change, that emphasis on reconciliation (narrowly defined) risks taking agency away from those affected by conflict and that emphasis on reconciliation may obscure injustice and may promote acceptance of the status quo. The article suggests that reconciliation is not a necessary condition of, and should be de-emphasised in, transitional justice and, if it is promoted at all, that a different, less prescriptive notion of reconciliation is necessary.

Keywords

Reconciliation Forgiveness Social change Transformative justice Transitional justice Victim agency 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Early versions of this article were presented at the Critical Legal Conference 2015: Law, Space and the Political (University of Wrocław, Wrocław, 3–5 September, 2015) and the Faculty of Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellows Mini-Symposium (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1 June 2015).

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Copyright information

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Political Studies, School of Social SciencesUniversity of the WitwatersrandJohannesburgSouth Africa
  2. 2.Sussex Law School, School of Law, Politics and SociologyUniversity of SussexFalmer, BrightonUK

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