How can Local Transitional Justice Mechanisms Work Towards Measures of Non-Recurrence?
Abstract
This dissertation examines questions of local agency and inclusion. It develops a conceptual understanding of whether, and if so how, local customary justice mechanisms could serve as guarantees of non-recurrence. It looks at how grassroots practices of “justice” could be utilized at the community level to deter the commission of future abuses and prevent the repetition of violent conflict, especially where the state has been completely absent. It specifically explores Acholi indigenous and customary practices of peacemaking and justice in Northern Uganda to understand how local practices could secure a lasting peace and cement communities’ commitment to peaceful coexistence.
While the prevailing literature tends to conceptualize measures of non-recurrence as being the purview of a formal state and governmental apparatus, this conceptualization is based on a narrow idea that state actors are the dominant perpetrators of violence in armed conflicts. However, recent structural shifts in armed conflict demonstrate that non-state armed actors equally commit severe atrocities, resulting in varying degrees of state control, ranging from perennial weakness to complete absence. Therefore, I argue that to effectively terminate violence and prevent the future reoccurrence of violent conflict, measures of non-recurrence must be viewed as a holistic approach that engages a series of actors at different levels, especially non-state armed actors and traditional institutions of conflict management at the local level.
Through the lens of social constructivism, I advance three explanations about how locally-based customary justice could help prevent the recurrence of violent conflict. First, I argue that the various customary justice instruments of how victims and perpetrators make amends at the community level could provide ex-combatants the best route to safely reintegrate into civilian life, which could, in turn, promote peaceful coexistence and reduce the likelihood of ex-combatants’ return to join armed groups. Second, customary justice and other traditional conflict management instruments such as local peace deals could also terminate localized violence, thereby serving as the springboard for broader peace processes to emerge at the national level. Third, the communal orientation of customary justice could serve as social control and accountability mechanism, which could perform a social deterrent function to prevent ex-fighters from returning to combat life.