Rule of Law

Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes

Forward
by Nelson Mandela

This important publication on transitional justice comes at a time when the world is grappling with the problems of governance, legitimacy, democracy, and human rights. In recent years, particularly during the past decade, there has been a remarkable movement in various regions of the world away from undemocratic and repressive rule towards the establishment of constitutional democracies.

In nearly all instances, the displaced regimes were characterized by massive violations of human rights and undemocratic systems of governance. In their attempt to combat real or perceived opposition, they exercised authority with very little regard to accountability.

Transition in these societies has therefore been accompanied by enormous challenges. While it has signified new hopes and aspirations, it has at the same time brought into sharp focus the difficult choices that these countries would have to make on their road to democracy and economic progress.

Ironically, the advent of democracy has also put the welcome endeavors for national consensus to a test. In South Africa, for instance, it has highlighted the deep divisions that have existed within society.

As all these countries recover from the trauma and wounds of the past, they have had to devise mechanisms not only for handling past human rights violations, but also to ensure that the dignity of victims, survivors, and relatives is restored. In the context of this relentless search for appropriate equilibria, profound issues of policy and law have emerged. They have arisen out of the question of how a country in transition should respond to allegations of gross human rights violations by individuals of either the predecessor or extant authority. The issue that has concerned the international community is the problem created by the incompatibility of such amnesties with a state's international obligations.

In so far as these volumes on Transitional Justice bring together under one roof the diverse experiences of transitional societies, they provide an impetus for the creation of an international community predicated on human dignity and justice. The variety as well as the richness of experiences contained in this publication will certainly be a useful guide not only to students and researchers in retrospective justice, but also in the popular endeavors to reorganize civil society.

My heartfelt congratulations to the United States Institute of Peace for this timely and well-organized publication.

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