The Economic and Social Dimensions of Transitional Justice

Transitional justice, as defined by the United Nations, is the full range of processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s attempt to come to terms with a legacy of large-scale past abuses of human rights (UN, 2010: 2). Although the UN acknowledges the equal importance of all human rights for human well-being and explicitly calls for addressing all these rights in processes of transitional justice (UN, 2010: 3 and 7), violations of socio-economic rights played so far a rather marginal role in this context (Carranza, 2008: 329). The neglect of economic and social aspects of authoritarian rule and war-torn societies does not remain undisputed, especially because its consequences can be infringements on the most basic rights, such as the right to life and human integrity. At times it is even claimed that unjust systems kill far more infants through malnutrition and the unavailability of water than they kill adults with bullets and bombs (Asmal, 2000: 16, referring to South Africa under apartheid).