Atrocity Prevention and Transitional Justice: Understanding the Linkages

The linkages between atrocity prevention and transitional justice are significant, but frequently overlooked. The former seeks to prevent genocides, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing by identifying specific risk factors for mass atrocity. Transitional justice also places at its center goals of justice, truth, reconciliation and non-repetition of past violations, but is routinely seen as distinct from atrocity prevention because it is considered as mostly backward-looking given its focus on redress and coming to terms with the past. However, transitional justice mechanisms play a significant role in mitigating atrocity risks by addressing impunity, contributing to institutional reform, allowing spaces for truth-telling and breaking the silences and distortions of the past. This roundtable will highlight the nexus between transitional justice and atrocity prevention by focusing on the role of psychosocial support, documentation and archives in upstream prevention and the need for gender justice in larger prevention efforts.