Transitional Justice Processes and Education: Common Efforts for a Justice-Based Reconciliation

• In Event: Education Reform for Healing, Co-Existence and Human Rights in Transitional Justice Environments

Abstract

Dr. Cole will explore new conceptions of transitional justice and the idea of transitional justice “outreach,” a process that appears to be critical to making transitional justice meaningful and sustainable in local contexts but that has been poorly supported and not extensively theorized. She will propose that rather than taking education as a vector to support transitional justice, the two areas of practice should be seen as equals, with a two-way relationship.

There are several ways that education can intersect with the processes and goals of transitional justice, education reform as one facet of institutional reform with a transitional justice lens, and education as a form of reparation being two concrete ways. But there is a more complex potential relationship between education and transitional justice, related to the broad principles and goals of transitional justice, which include the development to civic trust and democracy. Using recent writing that presents transitional justice as a social and political transformational process beyond legal developments, Dr. Cole will argue that, given the complex challenges that transitional justice faces as a politically difficult process, education cannot be viewed merely as a tool in a public relations toolbox. Education as a field has a distinct normative value that places it on a par with, not subordinate to, transitional justice and similar projects to promote justice and human rights, and educational institutions and processes have their own tasks, goals, sociology, legacies, obstacles. Education is also highly valued world-wide, almost beyond its capacity to deliver; this and its institutional, aspirational, future-oriented nature offer much to transitional justice, including offering a legacy for T.J. Only by recognizing all these factors can transitional justice truly grasp the power of education for the goals it aims to promote.

The presentation will draw on an analytical chapter developed for a research project of the International Center for Transitional Justice and draws on case studies, including the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and South Africa, which were developed using mainly primary data collection.

Author

• Elizabeth Cole, United States Institute for Peace