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Justice Without Care

Reconceptualizing Transitional Justice through Feminist Theoretical Analysis and Ethical Debate

Authored by: Laura Roost

Categories: Statebuilding
Sub-Categories: International Law, Mass Atrocities, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Transitional Justice
Country: Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 2014
Citation: Roost, Laura. "Justice Without Care: Reconceptualizing Transitional Justice through Feminist Theoretical Analysis and Ethical Debate." PhD diss., The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 2014.

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Executive Summary

The inability of certain formal mechanisms of transitional justice, like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to connect with the grassroots, the realistic inability of law to do everything that is demanded after atrocity, and different justice claims of people on the ground suggest that the process, scope, and goals need to be reconceptualized. The author examines the dichotomy of justice and care, emphasizing the role of feminist care ethics in transitional justice and include data collected from fieldwork in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Utilizing this data alongside feminist theory, multicultural theory, and care ethics leads to the argument that transitional justice needs to include care activities, particularly of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Such activities contribute to recovery, to an ability to participate in formal mechanisms of transitional justice, and to a feeling of justice in their own right as part of a holistic approach to transitional justice. A reconceptualized approach informed by feminist care ethics would address a broader set of past wrongs, and think more seriously about the society to be constructed through transitional justice.