Justice in Transitional Societies:
has gender become a central issue?
Keith Orwin1
Societies that have experienced conflict often face a difficult transitional stage. Transitional justice mechanisms
provide important tools in understanding how these
societies emerge from conflict. Conflict often exposes
women to a myriad of harms that have historically been
ignored when societies undergo post-conflict transition.
Contemporary debates in transitional justice have increasingly aimed to be more inclusive of gender. As such,
there have been significant gains in incorporating gender-issues in transitional societies, including hard won
gains in international law surrounding sexual violence.
This article will discuss the advancement of gender within
the key pillars of transitional justice: prosecutions, truth
commissions, reparations and institutional reform and
questions whether gender has become a central issue in
transitional justice.
Introduction
Transitional justice mechanisms provide important tools in understanding how societies emerge from conflict (Bell, Campbell and Ní Aoláin
2004: 305). Contemporary debates in the transitional justice field have
increasingly involved a role for gender within these mechanisms, which
Keith Orwin is a final year Law with Politics student at the University of Ulster - Orwin-K@email.ulster.ac.uk.
1