Transitional Justice and Peace Building Research Cluster (TJPR)

Transitional Justice and Peace Building Research Cluster (TJPR)

The Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding research cluster promotes research, debate, and discussion about justice, law and peacebuilding in post-conflict and post-authoritarian countries. 

The research cluster is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary space that brings together different fields of inquiry to critically analyse the complexities of justice after massive human rights violations. Societies in transition must take difficult ethical, legal, and political decisions to restore peace and stability, avoid relapsing into conflict and guarantee justice and accountability to victims and society. 

For this reason, the research cluster aims to problematise the multiple conceptions of justice in post-conflict societies. It incorporates critical perspectives that challenge the orthodox liberal theories of justice and build bridges with theories of justice from the Global South. It brings together the fields of restorative justice, memory studies, archival studies, and reparative justice. 

The cluster promotes empirical research that provides an in-depth analysis of case studies and a deeper understanding of how Transitional Justice is constructed and perceived by the communities and people that aim to benefit.

Current projects include case studies from Colombia, Liberia, and Central America. Other research projects focus on the uses of human rights archives for developing transitional justice and transnational human rights cases. 

Cluster Leader:

Dr Anita Ferrara

Current Projects:

• IRC PhD Scholar Beatrice Canossi
• University of Galway School of Law Ph.D. Scholar Courtney Curran
• University of Galway Hardiman Scholar PhD Kelsey Rhude
• PhD Candidate Parisa Zangeneh

Publications:

• Khelsey Rhude and Yah Vallah Parwon "Will justice ever be realized? Uncertainties for survivors of conflict-related gender-based violence as Liberia awaits the results of runoff presidential elections", Justice in Conflict, November 16, 2023 at https://justiceinconflict.org/
• Courtney Curran, 'The Kosovo Specialist Chambers—an insatiable creature with a preference for ICTY leftovers', Irish Centre for Human Rights blogpost (published online on 15 November 2023), webpage source: https://ichrgalway.wordpress.com/2023/11/15/the-kosovo-specialist-chambers-an-insatiable-creature-with-a-preference-for-icty-leftovers/.
• Beatrice Canossi, (2022). El caso de Otoniel: sus desafíos y lecciones para el Sistema Integral para la Paz (Policy Brief n.º 6). Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz – CAPAZ accessible at https://usercontent.one/wp/www.instituto-capaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Policy-Brief-Azul-6-2022.-El-caso-de-Otoniel-Beatrice-Canossi.pdf

News:

• PhD Researcher Beatrice Canossi ‘Professional Visitor’ at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Events:

• The Irish Centre for Human Rights welcomes Professor Elin Skaar

Past Events:

• The role of Transitional Justice Archives in supporting Justice, Reconciliation and Memory, International experiences and the Colombian case