Constructing a Sustainable Just Peace: Post-War Accountability for Russian Atrocities in Ukraine as Tools of Trauma Healing and Conflict Transformation

• In Event: Accountability and Justice for Atrocities in Ukraine: Lessons from the Past and Present

Abstract

This paper addresses the construction and maintenance of a sustainable just peace in a context characterized by Russia’s war of aggression and systematic, widespread atrocity crimes. Drawing from trauma healing, conflict transformation, and transitional justice literature, I argue that atrocity crimes accountability should not be conceptualized as a punitive “victor’s peace” condition, but rather a necessary mechanism for ensuring peace through victory in Ukraine, the region, and beyond. To enact such recommendations, I suggest a combined framework of individual perpetrator judicial accountability and State responsibility to incorporate best practices and curb the fallout of judicial accountability limitations.

Author

• Kristina Hook, Kennesaw State U