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Begin New Search Topic Transitional Justice Journal Conflict Trends

1. Pursuing peace and reconciliation in a post-atrocity society: A case study of transitional justice in Burundi

Author:
Isidore Nsengiyumva
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conflict Trends
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
In recent memory, no single year has catapulted Burundi into the spotlight more than the 20151 events when demonstrators and mass protesters took to the streets to protest the third term of then-President Pierre Nkurunziza. In the heat of the violent protests, some senior military officials, along with the police attempted a coup on 13 May 2015. Many in the international community and peacebuilding world feared a full-out civil war and a resurgence in sustained acts of violence that would plunge the country into chaos. They raised concerns that these events would seriously affect the peace gains obtained through the use of hard security approaches, such as the involvement of successive African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces, and soft security approaches, such as reforming the security sector and pursuing lasting peace and reconciliation. Despite a political malaise in the aftermath of 2015, the dire predictions for Burundi did not come to pass. Fast forward to 2023, Burundi is charting a new path for lasting peace through truth-telling, reconciliation and transitional justice following cyclic violent conflicts that have victimised thousands of Burundians. The ongoing peace and reconciliation processes in Burundi have garnered little attention from researchers. Modelled after the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Burundi Government instituted a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (NTRC) in 2014 by presidential decree. Since 2021, the NTRC has carried out investigations into human rights violations committed between 1972 and 1973 and other events surrounding arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and unlawful trials from the 1960s up to 1971.2 In addition to the investigations on the 1960s and early 1970s, the NTRC has the general mandate to investigate all gross human rights violations and war crimes perpetrated between 26 February 1985 and 4 December 2008. The Commission is further tasked with establishing both individual and collective responsibility by ordinary citizens and state actors in mass atrocity events. The creation of the NTRC was met with reservation and mixed views from some in the media and political circles in Burundi who feared the Commission would serve the interests of the ruling political elite and not necessarily lead to truth that unites and reconciles. Due to the political crisis in 2015, the programme of the NTRC was temporarily put to a halt and resumed with sustained momentum in 2018. Ever since, the NTRC has been conducting numerous field trips across the country to uncover the truth and aid individuals and communities alike in healing from the deep wounds of the past. The NTRC was tasked with shedding light on pre-colonial and post-colonial events of political violence and how the successive events have contributed to contemporary socio-political dynamics in Burundi.
Topic:
Transitional Justice, Youth, Peace, and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
Africa and Burundi

2. Natural Resource (In)justice, Conflict and Transition Challenges in Africa: Lessons from the Niger Delta

Author:
Luke Amadi
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conflict Trends
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
The term ‘natural resource (in)justice’ has been used in various contexts by various scholars. Contemporary resource justice scholarship highlights several different areas of debate, including power and inequality in resource access, control, ownership, greening, eco-efficiency, feminist ecology, resource transparency, just transitions,[1] resource equity, resource rights, and fairness with regards to global inequality in North/South natural resource policies.[2] Resource injustice underlines two dynamic and interwoven contexts. First, there is the anthropogenic context, which examines the adverse effects of natural resource extraction on humans, including exclusion, degradation, inequality, and unfair treatment in natural resource allocation. Second, there is the eco-centric context, which explores the adverse effects of natural resource extraction on the ecosystem or the natural environment. The broader terrain within which natural resource justice is being pursued is rapidly changing. With the rise of natural resource justice movements, new ecological threats, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and lethal feedback with deleterious capitalist resource extraction in the global South, resource justice is confronted with new challenges, notably resource conflict. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a considerable and increasing number of studies on natural resource conflict, including on questions of resource appropriation or what has become known in resource conflict debates as the ‘resource curse’, which points out the paradox of poverty among resource-rich countries.[3] Conflict and poverty are intertwined. In 2013, 471 million people lived in fragile and conflict-affected countries, while 78% of the world’s poor lived in these countries (181 million people).[4] Natural resources – land, water, forests, air – are essential to life on Earth.[5] Natural resource conflict accounts for the incompatibility of goals in natural resource use or appropriation. The rural poor in developing countries remain the most vulnerable, as they directly depend on natural resources for their food and livelihood security, while the livelihoods of 2.5 billion people depend wholly or partly on agriculture.[6] The dynamics of fair and equitable resource allocation in contexts associated with resource injustice are largely unknown. This is true especially where the resource-bearing local population is either marginalised or excluded in decision-making processes regarding natural resources.
Topic:
Environment, Natural Resources, Transitional Justice, Conflict, and Justice
Political Geography:
Africa and Niger Delta