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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Weak States And Political Constraints: Experiments With Truth In Liberia And Sierra Leone, Robert Collins Painter
Weak States And Political Constraints: Experiments With Truth In Liberia And Sierra Leone, Robert Collins Painter
Political Science Honors Projects
Focusing on truth and reconciliation commissions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this thesis examines which political conditions typical of weak states had the greatest impact in deciding the different levels of success between the two cases. Two conditions played a central role in determining each commission’s success: the de-legitimization of the state and political fragmentation. Their presence in Sierra Leone derailed that truth commission’s efforts to carry out its mandate. Conversely, their absence in Liberia allowed its commission to operate relatively free of political impediments, leading to greater success.
Timing Justice: Lessons From The Tribunals In Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, And Cambodia, Zoe B. Whaley
Timing Justice: Lessons From The Tribunals In Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, And Cambodia, Zoe B. Whaley
Political Science Honors Projects
Scholarship on tribunals for mass human rights violations overlooks how the presence or absence of conflict influences its effectiveness. I argue that implementing a tribunal during conflict undermines its ability to effectively pursue justice—as I demonstrate with a case study of the Yugoslav Tribunal. Ongoing conflict makes challenges of transitional justice more acute. The absence of conflict eases a tribunal’s ability to carry out certain necessary activities such as collecting evidence. I demonstrate this using a case study of the Rwanda Tribunal. Examining tribunals in Sierra Leone and Cambodia suggests that hybrid structures influence the effectiveness of these accountability mechanisms.