This book surveys transitional justice in the Balkans, focusing on the unexplored and under-researched role of civil society groups and local women’s groups, of art and community media and other grass-roots transitional justice mechanisms and initiatives.
Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans covers civil society engagements with transitional justice processes in the Balkans. The Balkans are a region marked by the post-communist and post-conflict transitional turmoil through which its countries are going through. This volume is intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to research in transitional justice in this part of the world, mostly written by local scholars. Transitional justice is ever-growing field which responds to dilemmas over how successor regimes should deal with past human rights abuses of their authoritarian predecessors. The editors and author emphasize the relatively unexplored and under-researched role of civil society groups and social movements, such as local women’s groups, the role of art and community media and other grass-roots transitional justice mechanisms and initiatives. Through specific case-studies, the unique contribution of this volume is not only that it covers a part of the world that is not adequately represented in transitional justice field, but also that the volume is the first project originally researched and written by experts and scholars from the region or in collaboration with international scholars.
Arvustused
From the reviews:
This is a very useful contribution both in summarizing the transitional justice experience in the Balkan region and in highlighting the role that civil society can play in a transitional justice process. This collection would be useful not only for students and scholars of both transitional justice and Balkan politics but also for practitioners working in peace-building and conflict prevention. this volume takes us one step closer to understanding both the contributions of and the limitations on civil societys involvement in transitional justice. (Julie Broome, Southeastern Europe, Vol. 37 (2), 2013)
"I recommend this book to scholars unfamiliar with the processes of transitional justice in the Balkans. Even scholars and stakeholders who are already familiar with those processes in the Balkans will find some chapters enlightening because the book raises very important issues which need to be addressed by civil societies that are yet to deal with the past human rights violations. Further, the book highlights not only the need for different transitional justice mechanisms to be complementary (as it is brilliantly exemplified by Tamara Banjeglav in her case study about Croatia), but also for the government and non-government actors to work together. This volume significantly contributes to the existing transitional justice literature covering both top-down and bottom up processes of transitional justice and of civil society involvement in the Balkans." (Jasmina Kijevcanin, Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory Research Network, http://historicaldialogues.org/2013/08/26/book-review-transitional-justice-and-civil-society-in-the-balkans/)
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1 Localizing Transitional Justice: Civil Society Practices and Initiatives in the Balkans |
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1 | (16) |
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Part I Initiatives Within the Nation States |
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2 Civil Society and Post-communist Transitional Justice in Romania |
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17 | (16) |
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3 Dealing with the Past in Post-war Croatia: Perceptions, Problems, and Perspectives |
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33 | (18) |
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4 The Failure of Macedonian Post-communist Transitional Justice: Lustration, Between Cleansing and Parody |
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51 | (18) |
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5 How Activists See Civil Society and the Political Elite in Bosnia: Relevance to Prospects of Transitional Justice |
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69 | (18) |
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6 The "Transitional Citizen": Civil Society, Political Agency and Hopes for Transitional Justice in Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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87 | (18) |
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7 Transitional Justice in Albania: Historical Burden, Weak Civil Society, and Conflicting Interests |
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105 | (18) |
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8 Truth in the Shadow of Justice |
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123 | (20) |
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Part II Transnational Civil Society Practices |
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9 Structured Encounters in Post-conflict/Post-Yugoslav Days: Visiting Belgrade and Prishtina |
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143 | (20) |
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10 What About the Women? Transitional Justice and Gender in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Northern Ireland |
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163 | (18) |
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11 `Pillar of Shame': Civil Society, UN Accountability and Genocide in Srebrenica |
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181 | (20) |
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12 Afraid to Cry Wolf: Human Rights Activists' Struggle of Transnational Accountability Efforts in the Balkans |
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201 | (16) |
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13 From International Courts to Grassroots Organizing: Obstacles to Transitional Justice in the Balkans |
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217 | (22) |
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| Index |
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239 | |
Olivera Simi is a Lecturer with the Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Australia. She holds an LLB from Nis Universitys Law School (Serbia), an LLM from Essex University (UK), an MA from UN University for Peace (Costa Rica) and a PHD from Melbourne Law School (Australia). Her research engages with transitional justice, international law, gender and crime from an interdisciplinary perspective. Olivera has published in journals such as International Journal of Transitional Justice, Law Text Culture, Women Studies International Forum, Journal of International Women Studies, International Peacekeeping as well as in books and book chapters. Her latest book, Regulation of Sexual Conduct in UN Peacekeeping Operations, has been published by Springer in 2012.
Zala Voli is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Queensland, Australia. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on topics including nationalisms in the Balkans, the cultural consequences of globalization, and media identities in former Yugoslavia. Her work has appeared in journals such as Discourse and Society, Popular Communication, Journal of Children and Media, Journal of Global Mass Communication, Canadian Journal of Communication, Social Semiotics, Information Communication & Society, ICMR / Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Critical Studies of Media Communication, and Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. Her latest book, Serbian Spaces of identity, has been published by Hampton Press in 2011.
