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Dealing with the Past

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The Order of Victimhood

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict ((PSCAC))

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Abstract

Peacebuilding, reconciliation, and transitional justice mechanisms are oriented around a broad imperative to acknowledge victims and hold wrongdoers accountable, and this chapter underlines key tensions that arise in these processes. Acknowledgement and accountability are crucial for both victims and wider society, and in particular to creating conditions in which relationships between former adversaries may be built upon a foundation of social trust and mutual accountability. The provision of ‘truth’ about past injustices in these efforts raises dilemmas regarding the multiple truths that persist, whose truth becomes part of the ‘official’ record as well as the personal and social ramifications of discovering uncomfortable truths. In order to address these tensions, I urge a more complex view of conflict and its actors in responses to the individual and societal legacies of violence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These levels are alternatively described as top-down versus bottom-up reconciliation (Lederach 2008), and Bar-Tal and Bennink (2004) contend that both should be undertaken simultaneously.

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  1. Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Sarah E. Jankowitz

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Jankowitz, S.E. (2018). Dealing with the Past. In: The Order of Victimhood. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98328-8_2

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