No Justice, No Peace: Towards a Decolonial Turn

• In Event: Positive Peace, Global Transformations, and U.S. Contestations: Decolonial, Ecological, Economic, and Democratic Pathways in Education (Part 1)

Proposal

In a world laden with increasing political, socio-economic and climatic crises, discussions about peace have taken center stage and gained undeniable urgency.

The United Nations had adopted the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, as early as 12 November1984 and proclaimed that the “peoples of our planet have a sacred right to peace”. On their 34th meeting on 22 June 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council further promoted the right to peace with a declaration that included the following:

-... everyone has the right to enjoy peace such that all human rights are promoted and protected and development is fully realized;
-...States should respect, implement and promote equality and non discrimination, justice and the rule of law, and guarantee freedom from fear and want as a means to build peace within and between societies;
-...peace is not only the absence of conflict but also requires a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation, and socioeconomic development is ensured.

The definitional parameters of “peace” set forth by the United Nations, therefore fully embraced the necessary elements for what Quincy Wright and Johan Galtung called “positive peace” and highlighted the central role and importance of the concept of justice as the foundation for a peaceful existence (Wright 1954, Galtung 1969). Indeed, in the 17th century, the influential Quaker thinker William Penn had clearly stated that peace cannot survive unless it is based on justice, concluding unequivocally that “justice is the means for peace” (Penn,1693).

Yet, in a world where political, social and economic structures underpin and accelerate the ongoing polycrisis and “perpetuate patterns of racially inscribed dispossession and appropriation”, we see an emerging need to challenge dominant discourses, rethink peace and decouple justice theory from its liberal roots. Hence, adopting decolonial approaches that are centered less on the private market and liberal ideologies and more on decolonial, relational and non-capitalist systems and alternative practices becomes central in creating pathways to address existing systemic and structural inequalities. (Thomas, 2024, Zembylas, 2024).

This paper will establish the undeniably intimate relationship between justice and peace and will take a critical look at the concept of justice and its hegemonic liberal conceptions in the context of decolonization that will make the Eurocentric notion of peace visible and de-normalize and de-center its discourses. The work of Franz Fanon on the conceptual frameworks and categories of coloniality that legitimate and reproduce inequalities and systems of violence will be reviewed. Recent scholarship on decoloniality will also be central to a critical discussion on challenging heretofore established definitions of justice (Quijano, 2000, Mignolo, 2007, Tuck&Young, 2012, Mbembe, 2016, Bhambra, 2018, Chatterjee, 2019, Maldonado-Torres,2020, Lugones, 2023) . The paper will highlight an understanding of peace that moves beyond the current “peace paradigm” based on multiple and interrelated systems of oppression and point the way towards a transition to pluriversality that restores indigenous agency and autonomy.

Author

• Rezan Benatar, Independent Scholar