ch 6 - the ethics of political reconciliation

transitional justice

how to cope with regime atrocities

goals/strategies of transitional justice

- restoration of rule of law

- consolidation of democratic institutions

- justice for HR victims

- political reconciliation and national unity

2 approaches of transitional justice

1) engagement

2) avoidance/denial

what is the assumption made by the engagement approach?

national healing/reconciliation can only be done through disclosing, acknowledging, redressing regime wrongdoing through accountability.

what is the role of truth in the engagement approach?

indispensable

strategies of accountability in the engagement approach

- legal retribution: immediate and long-term impact = supremacy of law

- official purges

- restitution (return of stolen property)

- reparations (financial compensation)

- public apologies

- truth commissions (most important)

- political forgiveness

what are the 3 assumptions made by the avoidance/denial approach?

1) pervasive guilt impedes political reconciliation and creates further division of society.

2) accountability inhibits national reconciliation.

3) a forward-looking strategy in building a humane political order will prevent HR crimes from reoccurring.

two expressions of the avoidance approach

1) historical amnesia - deny past/neglect memory

2) amnesty - public acts that relieve responsibility

examples of engagement and avoidance

romania (engagement) and poland (avoidance - thick line)

political reconciliation (Daniel Philpott)

the restoration of right relationship

(overcome division)

six practices of political reconciliation (Daniel Philpott - critical to address past systemic evils)

1) building socially just institutions/relations

2) acknowledgement

3) reparation

4) punishment

5) apology

6) forgiveness

political reconciliation should be conceived as

the building/rebuilding of trust (Govier, Verwoerd)

social trust is indispensable to orderly, creative, and prosperous societies

Putnam, Fukuyama (social capital)

example of rebuilding trust

france/germany & US/germany post WW2 + international institutions = social/political solidarity

2 approaches to national reconciliation (Michael Feher)

1) purists - HR activists

2) pragmatists - gov officials

1) purists

- demand accountability for healing

crime exposed, stigmatized, punished -> justice, rule of law, dem inst -> peace, reconciliation

2) pragmatists

- reconciliation as a precondition for the consolidation of democracy and rule of law

- amnesty, forgiveness -> peace, reconciliation -> justice, rule of law, dem inst

is reconciliation the cause or the effect?

both

dominant way reconciliation is practiced

first justice, then peace -> states' primary moral task = justice

problems with "justice first"

1. conditions of strict justice are never fully realized.

2. national unity takes less priority

3. justice does not necessarily create community, empathy and compassion do.

nuremberg trials

sought to identify and punish major offenders, then pursue communal reconciliation through slow process of building democratic institutions

3 aspects of political reconciliation

1) retributive justice

2) restorative justice

3) political forgiveness

bases of retributive justice

when offenses are committed, moral and legal equality is destroyed.

how to restore moral equality according to retributive justice

public condemnation of offenders -> victims regain moral status

retributive justice paradigm

political communities can only be sustained if wrongdoing is prosecuted. this is the obligation of states

what happens when states fail to fulfill their obligation to retributive justice

the international community should take action

challenges of retributive justice

evidence, political instability, prosecuting offenders

case study for retributive justice

prosecuting rwanda's genocide offenders

rwanda history

- tutsi and hutu

- 1962 independence -> hutu power, redressed inequalities, reverse discrimination against tutsi

- 1980s: Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF- Tutsi force)

- 1993: Arusha Accords - ceasefire between gov (Hutu) and RPF

rwanda genocide

- 1994 april-july: 800,000 dead

- rw justice system totally destroyed

- rw govt courts: too many detained

- gacaca

problems with gacaca

- no impartiality/legal protection

- easily manipulated, forms new injustices

- tutsi war crimes are exempted

ICTR - International Crime Tribunal for Rwanda

- considered to have low/no impact on rwanda in the social/political context

- very inefficient, $40 mil per detainee

restorative justice

- healing and restoration rather than punishment

- restoration of communal bonds through social/political reconciliation

restorative justice does not forget the past

1) describes truth of past offenses

2) encourages to admit guilt

3) expressing repentance

4) expressing remorse

5) reparation + restitution

strategy of restorative justice

1. moral equality restored

2. political renewal

1. moral equality restored

- offenders acknowledge responsibility, are prepared for legal punishments

- victims refrain from vengeance, acknowledge empathy, are liberated of anger

- forgiveness leads to political reconciliation

2. political renewal

individual forgiveness extended to community level

case study for restorative justice

south african apartheid

strategy taken in south africa

restorative justice through truth telling

- conditional amnesty to those who fully confessed

- priority was the healing of victims + restoration of communal bonds

1995 truth commission TRC divided into

1. HR Violations Committee

2. Amnesty Committee

3. Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee

ethics of the TRC - restorative justice paradigm questioned

- model undermines core societal norms, such as accountability, blame, and punishment

- minimizes memory of apartheid (john dugard)

ethics of reconciliation / restorative justice

- reconciliation = illegitimate public policy goal

- reconciliation - undemocratic doctrine threatening HR -> reconciliation through democracy, dem does not lead to communal solidarity, first unity then dem then reconciliation

is truth important?

yes. it advances healing and restores communal bonds

TRC critics

- is truth healing?

- no distinction between state vs ANC atrocities

- conditional amnesty - offensive to HR activists

political forgiveness

accepting/admitting wrongs of past, overcomes past through repentance and reconciliation

elements of political forgiveness

1) complete, public truth-telling

2) leaders express public contrition (monetary, genuine)

3) victim acknowledges contrition without vengeance/retribution

4) reconciliation

why TRC are not political forgiveness?

- pursued accountability through truth telling

- offenders did not confess voluntarily (was incentivized)

- provided amnesty

- TRC is multidimensional strategy that seeks to restore legal, social, cultural, political, spiritual life

case study for political forgiveness

the bitburg dilemma

the issue with the bitburg visit was not politics, but

good and evil

why do critics argue regain should not have visited bitburg?

remembering is more important than reconciliation, history is more significant than forgiving

consequentialist logic of decision

- cancellation would have jeopardized us-ge relations, hurt ge leadership

- blessing in disguise, as it made millions aware