Presented in collaboration with Social Sciences Week

Join us for one or both of two online seminars exploring transformative justice and peace on the African continent. Please register here

Transformative Justice and the African Union: Unsettling the Dominant Discourse and Practice of Transitional Justice

Session 1: Monday 4 September, 1 – 2 pm

Transformative Justice and the African Union: Unsettling the Dominant Discourse and Practice of Transitional Justice

Transitional justice as a field of practice has become standardised around four ‘essential and complementary’ key pillars derived from the Joinet principles against impunity: criminal justice, truth-seeking, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence/institutional reform. These four key pillars were defined by the United Nations in 2010 as central to supporting transitional justice in countries seeking to build peace at the same time as addressing the legacies of mass human rights violations. I have argued that the imposition of these four pillars as the only model of transitional justice not only undermines the principles of local ownership and contextualisation, it is also incompatible with a process of transformative justice and the ultimate goals of peace and reconciliation. The African Union has subsequently developed a Transitional Justice Policy and Framework for the region that takes a broader, more flexible and localised perspective which is consistent with a model of transformative justice. This presentation will analyse the African Union Transitional Justice Policy published in 2019 with reference to the case of Gambia and potential application in Ethiopia, comparing with the UN’s attempts to implement its model of transitional justice in Burundi a decade earlier. Central to this analysis will be consideration of the implications of competing knowledges, power and resistance at play in determining the dynamics and outcomes of negotiations between local civil society, national governments, regional and international actors in the pursuit of peace with justice.

Speaker:

Dr Wendy Lambourne is Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies, Discipline of Sociology and Criminology, University of Sydney. Her research and writing in transitional justice over the past 20+ years has focused on a critique of the dominant legal and political Western paradigms, models and concepts being imposed on local communities around the world without sufficient regard for other sociocultural and disciplinary perspectives on what might be needed for building peace and reconciliation. Drawing on her experiences conducting fieldwork in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia/Pacific, Dr Lambourne proposed a model of transformative justice going beyond legal justice to incorporate political and socioeconomic justice, along with psychosocial healing and relational transformation to support the structural transformation required for peacebuilding. She has contributed as a member of the expert network on Psychosocial Peacebuilding led by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, and the WUN Resilient Peace network led by the University of Bristol. She is also an associate of the Burundian non-government organisation, Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Services (THARS), and an invited participant in the Ethiopian diaspora community’s Peace for Ethiopia Now Initiative.

Session 2: Monday 4 September, 7:30 – 8:30 pm

Power and Influence: Civil Society, the African Union and Peace with Justice on the African Continent

Panel:

• Dr Wendy Lambourne, University of Sydney (facilitator)
• Daniel Gobena, Peace for Ethiopia Now
• Simeon Gready, University of Melbourne

This panel takes as its jumping off point an analysis of the power dynamics inherent in interactions between local, regional and international actors in the determination of transitional justice priorities and practice such as criminal trials and truth commissions. Panelists will discuss the reality of experiences in Gambia and Ethiopia with reference to the implementation of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP) and its focus on a more localised, contextualised and transformative approach to building peace with justice after mass violence. We will consider the role of the United Nations and other international actors interacting with the African Union, national governments and local civil society in determining transitional justice outcomes in Gambia, and how this might play out in Ethiopia where the AUTJP was referenced in last year’s peace agreement.

Participants at this event on zoom will have a chance to ask questions of the panelists and discuss the implications for diaspora community influence and involvement in transitional justice processes and the quest for peace in their countries of origin. We welcome contributions to the discussion from anyone interested in peace with justice on the African continent.

Speakers:

Daniel Gobena is a man of diverse origins, having been born in Ethiopia, raised in New Zealand and migrated to Australia in 2012. He is happily married with two daughters. At present, he serves as a manager at the Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency (MECA) in Western Sydney, where he assists in resettling new Australians from refugee backgrounds. Additionally, Daniel is a co-founder and secretary of the African Australian Advocacy Centre (AAAC). Prior to his work in the social sector, he worked as an engineer in Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, Daniel is actively engaged in leading an initiative called ‘Peace for Ethiopia Now’ which aims to contribute to peace development in Ethiopia following the recent civil war.

Simeon Gready is a South African PhD Candidate in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His current research focuses on the role of the African Union in the transitional justice initiatives of its Member States, through the lens of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP). More broadly, he focuses on the potential for a ‘transformative’ transitional justice framework, with incorporation of the pursuit of structural socio-economic reform, holding a particular focus on Tunisia, South Africa and The Gambia. He has practitioner experience in developing and delivering workshops on human rights and security for at-risk human rights defenders and has also worked in the humanitarian aid sector in response to the current policy crisis on refugees in Europe, partly in the capacity of conducting Psychological First Aid training for humanitarian professionals.