Towards Transformative Guarantees of Non-Recurrence After Mass Atrocities: At the Nexus of Justice, Peace and Social Repair

• In Event: Atrocity Crimes: Challenges, Approaches and Impacts of Transitional Justice (ECACTJ)

Abstract

Last year, 2023, marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the International Criminal Court, the crowning achievement of a post-World War II justice cascade that engendered two parallel fields of international criminal law and transitional justice. Today, the promise of this landmark development a quarter-century ago, a new world order in which societies never again endure the atrocities of war and mass violence, has yet to materialize. Conflicts and atrocities, from Ukraine to Gaza to Myanmar, continue unabated. One reason is States’ failure to tackle structural root causes of conflict – that is, those measures that transitional justice frames as guarantees of non-recurrence. Standing at the crossroads of transitional justice, international criminal law and peacebuilding, guarantees of non-recurrence are essential for genuine justice, peace and reconciliation. There is growing consensus amongst critical scholars that international law should refocus attention on this forward-looking prevention dimension. Yet, in practice, transitional justice reforms remain narrowly focused on backward-looking justice for direct harms by formal State justice and security institutions. By ignoring the complex power asymmetries embedded in informal institutions, transitional justice falls short of dismantling structures of historical injustice and inequality, instead reinforcing status quos that perpetuate systemic violence and criminality. This paper critically explores the extent to which guarantees of non-recurrence in transitional justice can more effectively advance social and political transformation and thus achieve a more comprehensive and equitable justice. Bringing together an interdisciplinary empirical study that draws on field interviews with victims and survivors of the Sri Lanka conflict, the paper explores how a core but under-scrutinized pillar of transitional justice can be contextualized in contemporary transitioning societies in Europe and beyond that are grappling with their own legacies of conflict and mass atrocity. Articulating a thicker version of justice, the paper ultimately presents a conceptual reimagining of more transformative guarantees of non-recurrence.

Author

• Nikhil Narayan, Queen's University Belfast School of Law