Over the next week, JiC will be hosting an online symposium on ‘Rethinking Peace and Justice’. The contributions to the symposium explore the pursuit of peace and endeavours to achieve justice and accountability for atrocities and human rights violations. They also respond to a recent report, by the same title. The rolling introduction was written by Mark Freeman, of the Institute for Integrated Transitions.

(Image: Ana Taban / BBC)

The Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) is pleased to partner with Justice in Conflict for this online symposium addressing the ideas covered in IFIT’s recent publication: Rethinking Peace and Justice. This publication is the first of a three-part IFIT series on contemporary challenges of transitional justice, and aims to provoke an overdue discussion in the mediation and human rights fields on the benefits of adopting a less ideological approach to balancing peace and justice.

The publication’s primary authors, Louise Mallinder and Ron Slye, demonstrate that flexible approaches to justice, particularly as part of negotiated transitions out of armed conflict, have received increased recognition in international law and policy in recent years. Drawing on state practice and policy, the publication explains how carefully designed legal leniency measures can play an important role in helping societies to move beyond violent pasts; and how negotiation techniques and process design can take advantage of the flexibility international law allows in order to balance peace and justice.

In order to promote peer discussion on the publication’s central arguments, we invited a number of international experts to write short reflection pieces of their own. These will be posted over the course of the week. Following that, Louise Mallinder and Ron Slye will offer a concluding reflection.

We sincerely hope Justice in Conflict’s readership enjoy this special symposium.

Posts include:

Rethinking Peace and Justice: Lessons from the Colombian Transitional Justice Experience, by Juan Carlos Botero and Mateo Merchán

Rethinking Peace and Justice: A Balancing Act in Ukraine, by Sarah Dunne

What Justice is to be Required before Aid to Syrian Reconstruction?, by Stephen Rapp

Balancing Peace and Justice in Negotiated Transitions from Conflict in Asia, by Galuh Wandita

Peace versus Justice, Round 10,000? Nah. Some Options for the International Criminal Court, by Mark Kersten

“Rethinking Peace and Justice” Symposium: Concluding Reflections, by Ron Slye and Louise Mallinder