Transformative Justice

Abstract

Abstract Transitional justice is in crisis. Assumptions have turned into questions and core elements of the paradigm have been subjected to sustained critique. However, there is much less commentary that goes beyond critique and the suggestion of micro-alternatives to set out in a comprehensive fashion what an alternative approach might look like. This chapter discusses one such alternative: transformative justice. It unpacks the concept of transformative justice by addressing four questions: given that alternatives can perform various functions, does transformative justice seek to replace or reform transitional justice? How should transformative justice engage with the state and state institutions? Is its main focus on the past, and redress for the past, or does it adopt a different temporal register? And, lastly, how can a complex, holistic agenda be delivered in practice? The chapter concludes that transformative justice can best be seen in terms of a practice stretching eclectically across time and the local-to-global, questioning conventional categories and ways of working, shining a light on silences and exclusions, and privileging process and pluralism. These insights inform a definition of transformative justice as (i) emphasizing local agency and resources; (ii) prioritizing process and pluralism rather than singular paradigms and preconceived outcomes; (iii) addressing a violent past but in a way that acknowledges continuities between past and present and that creating a better future is an open-ended, ongoing project; and (iv) challenging unequal and intersecting power relationships and structures of exclusion through strategic action spanning local, national (the state), and global levels.