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Keith Orwin
has been formulated by years of feminist intervention (Bell and O’Rourke 2007: 1). By examining the key pillars of transitional justice:
prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations and institutional reform,
this article will explore the complex relationship between gender and
transitional justice, assessing to what extent gender has become a central issue. Firstly, it will examine the subject of ‘harms’ experienced by
women in societies which have experienced conflict, and consider how
these harms differ from those suffered by men. Secondly, after drawing
upon the concept of gender-harms, the article will consider how gender-harms have been addressed through the pillars of transitional justice,
and question whether gender has been promoted as a central issue. It will
be argued that although much progress has been made in incorporating a
gender-sensitive approach in transitional justice, the key pillars of transitional justice fail in addressing the complex web of gender based harms.
Harms
In order to examine whether gender has become a central issue in transitional justice, it is important to analyse gender-harms that arise as a
result of conflict. Heywood (2011: 422) argues that many of the harms
that women are exposed to are similar to those experienced by men.
However it is often the case that women’s pre-existing socioeconomic
status, and deeply rooted cultural norms in a patriarchal society, indicate that the harms which women are subjected to differ substantially
to those suffered by men (Turano 2011: 1061). This often has roots in
what is commonly known as the public/private divide of society. This
divide can be seen in the study of classical liberalism, which analyses the
distinction between the public sphere of government and commerce and
the private sphere consisting of family and the domestic home (Pateman
1989: 118). In many societies, men often dominate the public sphere of
government