Transitional justice processes are now considered to be crucial steps in facilitating the move from conflict or repression to a secure democratic future. This book contributes to a deeper understanding of transitional justice by examining the complexities of transition in postcolonial societies. It focuses particularly on Zimbabwe but draws on relevant comparative material from other postcolonial polities. Examples include but are not limited to African countries such as South Africa, Rwanda and Mozambique. European societies such as Northern Ireland, as well as other nations such as Guatemala, are also considered. While amplifying the breadth of the subject of transitional justice, the book addresses the claim that transitional justice mechanisms in postcolonial countries are necessary if the rule of law and the credibility of the country’s legal institutions are to be restored. Drawing on postcolonial legal theory, and especially on analyses of the relationship between international law and imperialism, the book challenges the assumption that a domestic rule of law ‘deficit’ may be remedied with recourse to international law. Taking up the paradigmatic perception that international law is neutral and has fixed rules, it demonstrates how complex issues which arise during postcolonial transitions require a more critical adoption of transitional justice mechanisms.

Providing a refreshing take on transitional justice, this second edition Research Handbook brings together an expanse of scholarly expertise to reconsider how societies deal with gross human rights violations, structural injustices and mass violence. Contextualised by historical developments, it covers a diverse range of concepts, actors and mechanisms of transitional justice, while shedding light on new and emerging areas in the field.

The documentary My heart of Darkness (Sweden 2011) tells the story of a South-African paratrooper returning to Angola: Facing former enemies, he tries to regain mental health and reconciliation. The film marks the stepping-stone for this volume: The contributions examine different facets like the memory-discourse, genre aspects, the use of music, and authentification processes. Several texts discuss these topics in a more general way including other films. Furthermore, some articles are devoted to the historical context, i.e. the Angolan Civil War and the aftermath of this conflict in the cultural sphere.

With a unique transitional justice perspective on the Arab Spring, this book assesses the relocation of transitional justice from the international paradigm to Islamic legal systems. The Arab uprisings and new and old conflicts in the Middle East, North Africa and other contexts where Islam is a prominent religion have sparked an interest in localising transitional justice in the legal systems of Muslim-majority communities to uncover the truth about past abuse and ensure accountability for widespread human rights violations. This raises pressing questions around how the international paradigm of transitional justice, and in particular its truth-seeking aims, might be implemented and adapted to local settings characterised by Muslim majority populations, and at the same time drawing from relevant norms and principles of Islamic law. This book offers a critical analysis of the relocation of transitional justice from the international paradigm to the legal systems of Muslim-majority societies in light of the inherently pluralistic realities of these contexts. It also investigates synergies between international law and Islamic law in furthering truth-seeking, the formation of collective memories and the victims' right to know the truth, as key aims of the international paradigm of transitional justice and broadly supported by the shari'ah. This book will be a useful reference for scholars, practitioners and policymakers seeking to better understand the normative underpinnings of (potential) transitional truth-seeking initiatives in the legal systems of Muslim-majority societies. At the same time, it also proposes a more critical and creative way of thinking about the challenges and opportunities of localising transitional justice in contexts where the principles and ideas of Islamic law carry different meanings.

The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Studies provides a comprehensive overview of the latest scholarship in postcolonial studies, while also considering possible future developments in the field. Original chapters written by a worldwide team of contritbuors are organised into five cross-referenced sections, 'The Imperial Past', 'The Colonial Present', 'Theory and Practice', 'Across the Disciplines', and 'Across the World'. The chapters offer both country-specific and comparative approaches to current issues, offering a wide range of new and interesting perspectives. The Handbook reflects the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of postcolonial studies and reiterates its continuing relevance to the study of both the colonial past--in its multiple manifestations-- and the contemporary globalized world. Taken together, these essays, the dialogues they pursue, and the editorial comments that surround them constitute nothing less than a blueprint for the future of a much-contested but intellectually vibrant and politically engaged field.

Employing feminist, queer, and postcolonial perspectives, Global Justice and Desire addresses economy as a key ingredient in the dynamic interplay between modes of subjectivity, signification and governance. Bringing together a range of international contributors, the book proposes that both analyzing justice through the lens of desire, and considering desire through the lens of justice, are vital for exploring economic processes. A variety of approaches for capturing the complex and dynamic interplay of justice and desire in socioeconomic processes are taken up. But, acknowledging a complexity of forces and relations of power, domination, and violence – sometimes cohering and sometimes contradictory – it is the relationship between hierarchical gender arrangements, relations of exploitation, and their colonial histories that is stressed. Therefore, queer, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives intersect as Global Justice and Desire explores their capacity to contribute to more just, and more desirable, economies.

This book investigates the importance of gender and resistance to silences and denials concerning human rights abuses and historical injustices in narratives on transnational memories of three violent conflicts in Indonesia. Transnational memories of violent conflicts travel abroad with politicians, postcolonial migrants and refugees. Starting with the Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942–1945), the war of independence (1945–1949) and the genocide of 1965, the volume analyses narratives in Dutch and Indonesian novels in relation to social and political narratives (1942–2015). By focusing on gender and resistance from both Indonesian and Dutch, transnational and global perspectives, the author provides new perspectives on memories of the conflicts that are relevant to research on transitional justice and memory politics.

This book addresses the largely neglected place of women defendants in contemporary international criminal law, beyond the construction of women as victims, and asks what the analysis of women perpetrators, defendants and suspects reveals about international criminal law, the media and feminism. The book uses the topic of women perpetrators, defendants and suspects as a way to explore the concept of legal subjectivity via a gender analysis. It highlights how women perpetrators, defendants and suspects are constituted through three spheres, namely the areas of international criminal law, the media and feminism. In examining the relationship between women perpetrators, defendants and suspects and each of these spheres, the book exposes embedded gender biases and structural gender fractures. These reveal that problematic assumptions about how gender operates in conflict are embedded in the very foundations of legal imaginations. Ultimately, the book argues that this has far reaching consequences, beyond its impact on current understandings of armed conflict. Rather, these assumptions should be a concern for us all, even in times of peace. This book will be of use to legal academics and practitioners interested in gender within international criminal law, as well as those concerned with contemporary feminist approaches to law.

Africa lies at the centre of the international community’s peacebuilding interventions, and the continent’s rich multitude of actors, ideas, relationships, practices, experiences, locations, and contexts in turn shapes the possibilities and practices of contemporary peacebuilding. This timely new handbook surveys and analyses peacebuilding as it operates in this specifically African context. The book begins by outlining the evolution and the various ideologies, conceptualizations, institutions, and practices of African peacebuilding. It identifies critical differences in how African peacebuilders have conceptualized and operationalized peacebuilding. The book then considers how different actors sustain, construct, and use African infrastructure to identify and analyse converging, differing, or competing mandates, approaches, and interests. Finally, it analyses specific thematic issues such as gender, justice, development, democracy, and the politics of knowledge before ending with in-depth analyses of case studies drawn from across the continent. Bringing together an international line-up of expert contributors, this book will be an essential read for students and scholars of African politics, post-conflict reconstruction, security, and peace and conflict studies.

Explores how European nations were remade by the end of empire, through the history of 'returning' settlers from Portuguese Africa.