(Fall 2005) - Vol 1 No. 3 (147-203)
Table of Contents
Editorial
Articles
Property Restitution Laws in a Post-War Context: The Case of Mozambique - Jon Unruh [Full-text PDF], pp. 147-165.
The Protection of Human Rights in Uganda: Public Awareness and Perceptions - John Cantius Mubangizi [Full-text PDF], pp. 166-186.
Legal Texts of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
Agreement Between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the Establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone [Full-text PDF], pp. 187-194.
Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone [Full-text PDF], pp. 195-203.
(Spring 2005) - Vol. 1 No. 2 (53-146)
Table of Contents
Editorial
Articles
Ending Impunity: The Case for War Crimes Trials in Liberia - Chernor Jalloh and Alhagi Marong [Abstract] [Full-text PDF], pp. 53-79.
United Nations Resolutions and the Struggle to Curb the Illicit Trade in Conflict Diamonds in Sub-Saharan Africa - Mungabalemwa Koyame [Abstract] [Full-text PDF], pp. 80-101.
L’Envers et l’endroit de l’interprétation islamiste du concept de jihad en droit islamique - Bruce Mabley [Abstract-FRN] [Abstract-ENG] [Full-text PDF], pp. 102-128.
Note and Comment
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Demystification of Second and Third Generation Rights under the African Charter - Justice C. Nwobike [Abstract] [Full-text PDF], pp. 129 -146.
African Journal of Legal Studies - (Spring 2004) Vol. 1 No. 1 (1–52).
FOREWORD - Chernor Jalloh, Executive Editor, AJLS
ARTICLES
1. VIOLENCE, AMNESTY AND TRANSITIONAL LAW: "PRIVATE" ACTS AND "PUBLIC" TRUTHS IN SOUTH AFRICA - Rosemary Nagy*
ABSTRACT
Whereas amnesty is generally associated with impunity and denial, in South Africa, amnesty was pulled into the reach of justice and reconciliation. This article assesses the extent to which South Africa’s amnesty fulfilled these normative goals. It centers on the difficulty of differentiating between “private” acts and “political” crimes deserving of amnesty. It argues that the determination of political crimes obfuscated the full extent of apartheid violence and responsibility for it. Consequently, the amnesty process produced a truncated “truth” about apartheid violence that was insufficient to the task of overcoming the past. This is in part an intractable problem embedded in the conflicting tasks of transitional law. The lesson of hope that South Africa offers to other transitional nations is that amnesty should be wound into the promises of democracy without creating false expectations of reconciliation or simplistic truths about the past.
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*Rosemary Nagy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. This article is based on her doctoral dissertation in Political Science, “Through the Public/Private Lens: Reconciliation, Responsibility and Democratization in South Africa.” The author can be contacted by email at rnagy@connect.carleton.ca.
2. RECONCILIATION IN POST-GENOCIDE RWANDA - Eugenia Zorbas*
ABSTRACT
National reconciliation is a vague and ‘messy’ process. In post-genocide Rwanda, it presents special difficulties that stem from the particular nature of the Rwandan crisis and the popular participation that characterized the Rwandan atrocities. This article outlines the main approaches being used in Rwanda to achieve reconciliation, highlighting some of the major obstacles faced by these institutions. It then goes on to argue that certain ‘Silences’ are being imposed on the reconciliation process, including the failure to prosecute alleged RPA crimes, the lack of debate on, and the instrumentalization of, Rwanda’s ‘histories’, the collective stigmatization of all Hutu as génocidaires, and the papering over of societal cleavages through the ‘outlawing’ of ‘divisionism’. The role economic development can play in the reconciliation process is also discussed. Given the Government of Rwanda’s central role in the reconciliation process and its progressive drift towards authoritarianism, the article ends with a reflection on the worrisome parallels between the pre and post-genocide socio-political contexts.
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*Eugenia Zorbas is a Doctoral Candidate at the Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on post-conflict reconstruction, reconciliation debates and the role of nationalism and ethnicity. In 2002/3, she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rwanda.