Human Rights Education Associates

Gender and Transitional Justice

4 November-15 December 2020 (E05620) | Register for this course (opens in new window)
Instructor: Stephanie Chaban

The push for recognition of, and accountability for violence and harm experienced during situations of armed conflict or political tension is the subject of the emerging field of transitional justice. Since the Nuremberg trials in World War II, a range of mechanisms have emerged as part of what may be conceived of as an overall ‘package’ of approaches used in facilitating societies’ movement from conflict to peace. These include mechanisms such as truth commissions, international prosecutions, national lustration mechanisms and reparation for victims.

The increasing trend towards the employment of transitional justice mechanisms after periods of conflict has been the subject of much debate as well as policy scrutiny from feminist scholars and gender practitioners. The field of transitional justice has been identified as important to broadening understanding of the women and conflict discourse and of women’s experiences of armed conflict. Transition and transitional justice have been identified as gendered processes with potential to both contribute to and inhibit a more nuanced understanding of women’s experiences of violence and harm during conflict.

This e-learning course provides participants with a general introduction to the field of transitional justice from the perspective of the need for accountability for women’s specific experiences of harm during conflict. Legal as well as non-prosecutorial responses to women’s experiences of harm (such as international criminal trials, truth commissions and reparations programmes) will be examined. Case studies from processes employed in post-conflict contexts such as Lebanon and Syria will be used to illustrate the application of critical concepts of gender theory to the transitional justice field.

After this course, participants will:

• be able to identify the relevance of gender equality to processes of post-conflict transition and transitional justice;
• be able to critically assess processes of transition from a gender perspective;
• possess knowledge on the particular experiences of transitional justice for women in a number of specific country contexts.