Abstract
There has been a great deal of academic work undertaken recently that attempts to appraise the success of transitional justice (TJ) in various post-Conflict states. However, there is little agreement on what counts as success and how it should be measured or judged. The other chapters in this book consider the extent to which Sierra Leone’s TJ processes should be considered a success. I take a step back to focus instead on what we mean by ‘success’ when assessing the impacts of TJ efforts and to examine the problems involved in evaluating transitional justice. My aim is not to provide a Definition of success, as to do so would be impossible, for reasons set out below. Rather, I hope to provoke readers to consider afresh what should count as TJ success and how it should be evaluated.
I would like to thank Valerie Arnould, Rebekka Friedman, George Lawson, Chris Mahony and Elin Skaar for their comments on this piece or assistance in accessing relevant literature. I also thank Charles Taku and the Sierra Leoneans and SCSL personnel who shared their perspectives of the TJ mechanisms with me during interviews in Sierra Leone in 2009.
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Notes
E. Skaar, C. Gianella Malca and T. Eide (2015) After Violence: Transitional Justice, Peace, and Democracy (London: Routledge), Chapter 1, p. 20.
O. N. T. Thoms, J. Ron and R. Paris (2008) ‘The Effects of Transitional Justice Mechanisms: A Summary of Empirical Research Findings and Implications for Analysts and Practitioners’ (Ottawa: Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa), p. 26.
T. M. Clark (2014) ‘Assessing the Special Court’s Contribution to Achieving Transitional Justice’, in C. C. Jalloh (ed.) The Sierra Leone Special Court and Its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 749.
C. Duggan (2010) ‘Editorial Note to Special Issue on Transitional Justice on Trial’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 4, 320.
N. Kritz (2009) ‘Policy Implications of Empirical Research on Transitional Justice’, in H. van der Merwe, V. Baxter and A. Chapman (eds) Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press), p. 13.
UNSC (2012) ‘Security Council, in Statement, Strongly Commends Special Court for Sierra Leone, Urges Robust Financial Support as Historic Body Moves into Final Stages of Work’, available at: http://www.un.org/press/en/2012/sc10787.doc.htm
See K. Ainley (2011) ‘Excesses of Responsibility: The Limits of Law and the Possibilities of Politics’, Ethics & International Affairs 25(4), 407–431.
H. J. Kim and K. Sikkink (2010) ‘Explaining the Deterrence Effect of Human Rights Prosecutions for Transitional Countries’, International Studies Quarterly 54(4), 939–963.
J. Snyder and L. Vinjamuri (2003/2004) ‘Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice’, International Security 28(3), 5–44.
T. D. Olsen, L. A. Payne and A. G. Reiter (2010) Transitional Justice in Balance. Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy (Washington, DC: Unites States Institute of Peace Press).
K. Ainley (2008) ‘Individual Agency and Responsibility for Atrocity’, in R. Jeffery (ed.) Confronting Evil in International Relations: Ethical Responses to Problems of Moral Agency (London: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 37–60 discusses the problems of viewing atrocity in terms of individual perpetrators. K. Ainley (2014) ‘Transitional Justice in Cambodia: The Coincidence of Power and Principle’, in R. Jeffery (ed.) Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) further outlines the shortcomings of assessing TJ mechanisms only on their mandates. For an examination of the TRC’s failure to investigate external actors see Mahony and Sooka in this book.
W. Schabas (2006) ‘The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, in N. Roht-Arriaza and J. Mariezcurrena (eds) Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 21–42.
S. Horovitz (2006) ‘Transitional Criminal Justice in Sierra Leone: Beyond Truth versus Justice’, in Roht-Arriaza and Mariezcurrena (eds) Transitional Justice, p. 43.
K. Sikkink (2011) The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (New York: W.W. Norton).
Probably the most infuential of these works are T. Kelsall (2009) Culture under Cross Examination: International Justice and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
and R. Shaw and L. Waldorf (eds) (2010) Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).
S. Ford (2014) ‘How Special is the Special Court’s Outreach Section’, in Jalloh (ed.) The Sierra Leone Special Court, pp. 505–526 is a nuanced analysis of these claims.
Figures calculated using estimate of $222.9 million from C. Jalloh (2010) ‘Special Court for Sierra Leone: Achieving Justice?’, Michigan Journal of International Law 32(3), 395–460, footnote 253 and adding in any 2011– 2013 expenditure not predicted when Jalloh made his calculation. The additional figures were sourced from the post-2010 annual Reports of the President of the SCSL. The budget of the Sierra Leonean domestic justice system is around $13 million per annum: http://www.cgdev.org/blog/ was-charles-taylor-trial-worth-price-tag
S. Ford (2011) ‘How Leadership in International Criminal Law Is Shifting from the U.S. to Europe and Asia’, St Louis University Law Journal 55, 953–1000.
S. Kendall (2014) ‘Marketing Accountability at the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in Jalloh (ed.) The Sierra Leone Special Court, pp. 387–405.
Jordash and Crowe in this book; J. Easterday (2014) ‘The Consequences of Witness Payments at the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in Jalloh (ed.) The Sierra Leone Special Court, pp. 447–468;
C. Mahony (2010) The Justice Sector Afterthought: Witness Protection in Africa (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies), pp. 84–86, 93–94.
E. Conteh and M. Berghs (2014) ‘“Mi at Don Poil”: A Report on Reparations for Amputee and War-Wounded People in Sierra Leone’ (Freetown: Amputee and War-Wounded Association), available at: http://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/fles/library/AWWA%20Report%20on%20Reparations.pdf; poverty statistic taken from Christian Aid ‘Losing Out’.
T. Kelsall (2005) ‘Truth, Lies, Ritual: Preliminary Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone’, Human Rights Quarterly 27, 361–391;
R. Shaw (2007) ‘Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2), 183–207.
M. Berghs (2012) War and Embodied Memory: Becoming Disabled in Sierra Leone (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Kelsall, ‘Truth, Lies, Ritual’, p. 371; J. Easterday (2013) ‘The Consequences of Witness Payments at the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in Jalloh (ed.) The Sierra Leone Special Court, 447–468.
H. Franzki and M. C. Olarte (2014) ‘Understanding the Political Economy of Transitional Justice: A Critical Theory Perspective’, in S. Buckley-Zistel et al. (eds) Transitional Justice Theories (London: Routledge), p. 203.
H. van der Merwe (2009) ‘Delivering Justice during Transition’, in van der Merwe et al. (eds) Assessing the Impact, p. 117.
E. Hoffman (2008) ‘Reconciliation in Sierra Leone: Local Processes Yield Global Lessons’, The Fletcher Forum for World Affairs 32(2), p.131.
R. Mani (2008) ‘Dilemmas of Expanding Transitional Justice’, International Journal for Transitional Justice 2(3), 253–265 discusses the importance of reparatory rather than rectificatory justice in developing countries.
E. Brahm (2007) ‘Uncovering the Truth: Examining Truth Commission Success and Impact’, International Studies Perspectives 8(1), p.28.
V. Arnould and C. Sriram (2014) ‘Pathways of Impact: How Transitional Justice Affects Democratic Institution-Building’, TJDI Policy Paper 1, p. 1,
P. de Greiff (2012) ‘Theorising Transitional Justice’, in M. S. Williams, R. Nagy and J. Elster (eds) Transitional Justice (New York: New York University Press), pp. 31–77.
K. A. Rodman (2013) ‘Justice is Interventionist: The Political Sources of the Judicial Reach of the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, International Criminal Law Review 13, 63–91.
D. Harris (2013) Sierra Leone: A Political History (London: Hurst), p. 171.
G. S. Davis (1992) Warcraft and the Fragility of Virtue: An Essay in Aristotelian Ethics (Moscow: University of Idaho Press), p. 23.
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Ainley, K. (2015). Evaluating the Success of Transitional Justice in Sierra Leone and Beyond. In: Ainley, K., Friedman, R., Mahony, C. (eds) Evaluating Transitional Justice. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137468222_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137468222_12
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