Ethics Identifications final

Sermon on the Mount

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is Jesus's foundational ethical teaching, which includes radical injunctions like "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies." For the ethics of war and peace, it provides the core scriptural basis for Christian pacifism and principled nonviolence, presenting an ideal of peace rooted in personal virtue and forgiveness rather than political power. It challenges believers to consider a standard of love and non-retaliation that transcends conventional just war reasoning.

Political Reconciliation

Political reconciliation is the process of restoring damaged political relationships and rebuilding trust between former adversaries in a society after mass violence or oppression. Its significance lies in shifting the focus from merely ending violence (negative peace) to establishing a just and sustainable peace (positive peace) based on shared citizenship, acknowledgment of wrongs, and institutional reform. It addresses the deep relational fractures that laws and treaties alone cannot heal, making it essential for long-term stability.

Acholi Religious Leaders Initiative

The Acholi Religious Leaders Initiative (ARLI) was a coalition of Christian and Muslim leaders in northern Uganda who worked to end the conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the government. Its significance is its demonstration of localized, faith-based peacemaking, emphasizing traditional Acholi practices of forgiveness and reconciliation (mato oput) over retributive justice. ARLI advocated for a restorative approach to reintegrate former combatants, influencing national amnesty policies and highlighting the role of cultural and religious actors in peace processes.

Conversion of Constantine

The conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century CE marked Christianity's shift from a persecuted sect to a religion allied with imperial power. This is critically significant for the ethics of war and peace because it forced the Church to develop a theological rationale for the use of force by Christian rulers, leading to the formal development of the "Just War" tradition (e.g., by Augustine). It represents the pivotal moment when Christian ethics began grappling with the moral responsibilities of state power and "lesser evil" thinking.

1949 Geneva Conventions

The four 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols form the core of international humanitarian law (IHL), establishing legal standards for the humane treatment of wounded soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians during armed conflict. Their profound significance is that they legally codify the ethical principle of distinction and humane treatment, seeking to limit the horrors of war by protecting those not participating in hostilities (jus in bello). They represent a global consensus that even wars have moral and legal limits.

Reparations

Reparations are material and symbolic compensations provided by a wrongdoer to victims for historical or mass injustices, which can include financial payments, restitution of property, or official apologies. For the ethics of war and peace, reparations are a critical component of corrective justice and post-conflict repair, acknowledging the dignity of victims and addressing the tangible harms of violence. They are seen as essential for breaking cycles of resentment and enabling a more stable, positive peace.

Catholic Worker Movement

Founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the Catholic Worker Movement is a network of communities dedicated to voluntary poverty, hospitality for the poor, and staunch pacifism. Its significance lies in its embodiment of a radical, Gospel-based ethic of peace that consistently opposes all war and preparation for war. It represents a "prophetic" witness within the Christian tradition, challenging both secular militarism and accommodations within the Just War tradition by practicing active nonviolence and personalist revolution.

Nuremberg Tribunal

The Nuremberg Tribunal (1945-46) was the first international court established to prosecute major Nazi war criminals for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Its landmark significance is that it established the principle that individuals, including heads of state, can be held criminally accountable under international law for aggression and atrocities, rejecting the defense of "just following orders." It laid the foundational legal and ethical precedent for modern international criminal justice and transitional justice mechanisms.

Gacaca courts

Gacaca courts were a community-based justice system used in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide to try most perpetrators except the planners and leaders of the genocide. Their significance for peace ethics is their innovative, large-scale application of restorative justice principles, prioritizing truth-telling, community participation, and the reintegration of perpetrators over purely retributive punishment. While controversial, they aimed to rebuild the torn social fabric at the local level, demonstrating a pragmatic model for post-genocide reconciliation where conventional courts were impossible.

Chauri Chaura

Chauri Chaura refers to the 1922 incident in India where protesters, after a clash with police, set a police station on fire, killing 22 officers. In response, Gandhi suspended the entire nationwide Non-Cooperation Movement. Its significance is that it embodies the absolute ethical commitment in Satyagraha to nonviolence as an inviolable means, not just a strategic tool. Gandhi argued that using violent means would corrupt the just end of independence, making the incident a pivotal lesson in the discipline and integrity required for ethical resistance.

Peacebuilding

Peacebuilding refers to the long-term process of identifying and addressing the root causes of violence and developing structures and institutions to solidify a sustainable, positive peace. Its significance is that it moves beyond peacemaking (ceasing conflict) and peacekeeping (maintaining a ceasefire) to create the conditions for peace to endure. This involves fostering justice, reconciliation, economic development, and good governance, making it a holistic ethical framework for preventing the recurrence of war.

South African TRC

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body established after apartheid to investigate human rights abuses, grant amnesty to perpetrators who fully confessed, and document victim testimony. Its profound significance is its innovative model of linking truth-telling to conditional amnesty, prioritizing national healing and restorative justice over retributive prosecutions. It framed reconciliation as a societal project based on acknowledgment, providing a globally influential—though debated—template for transitioning from oppression to democracy.

Liberian Women’s Movement for Peace

This was a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who, through strategic nonviolent action (including a sex strike and sustained public protests), pressured warring factions during Liberia's civil war to engage in peace talks, leading to the 2003 Accra Peace Agreement. Its significance is its powerful demonstration of how organized civil society, particularly women directly suffering from conflict, can ethically and effectively intervene to force a peace process, challenging traditional male-dominated power structures and broadening the agents of peacemaking.

Victor’s justice

"Victor's justice" is the critique that the trials of defeated war criminals (like at Nuremberg) are one-sided, applying standards only to the vanquished while ignoring atrocities committed by the victors. Its significance is that it presents a major ethical challenge to post-conflict tribunals, raising concerns about hypocrisy, legitimacy, and equality before the law. Addressing this critique is essential for creating a credible and fair international justice system that fosters genuine reconciliation rather than embitterment.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

The ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based international court established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Its significance is that it aims to end impunity for the worst international crimes by providing a standing institution of global justice, thereby deterring future atrocities and offering victims a permanent avenue for accountability. It represents the ongoing, contentious effort to institutionalize the ethical norms established at Nuremberg into a universal legal framework.