Restorative Justice, Reconciliation, and Peacebuilding

All over the world the practice of peacebuilding is beset with common dilemmas: peace versus justice, religious versus secular approaches, individual versus structural justice, reconciliation versus retribution, and the harmonization of the sheer multiplicity of practices involved in repairing past harms. Progress towards the resolution of these dilemmas requires far more than reforming institutions and practices but rather clear thinking about the more basic questions: What is justice? And how is it related to the building of peace? The twin concepts of reconciliation and restorative justice, both involving the holistic restoration of right relationship, contain not only a compelling logic of justice but also great promise for resolving peacebuilding's tensions and for constructing and assessing its institutions and practices. This volume furthers this potential by developing not only the core content of these concepts but also their implications for accountability, forgiveness, reparations, traditional practices, human rights, and international law.

While the volume's central orientation is theory, it contains much of interest to a wide range of scholars as well as practitioners. It is both interdisciplinary and accessibly written. It situates its analysis in countries as diverse as South Africa, El Salvador, Canada, and East Timor and in the work of institutions and communities such as the United Nations, the Catholic Church, various indigenous communities, and the international law community. It contains essays by leading scholars of restorative justice, international law, transitional justice, political philosophy and theology.