Skip to content
INSCT Postconflict Research Database

INSCT Postconflict Research Database

The Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism's Postconflict Research Database & Analysis Project stores cross-indexed bibliographic information on hundreds of journal articles, books, book chapters, and case reports that address the broad, interdisciplinary fields of postconflict reconstruction, stabilization, and peacebuilding.

  • Home
  • Search the Database
  • Literature Trends
  • Sampling & Coding
  • Project Team
  • INSCT

Author: derekpowell

Posted on January 25, 2012October 29, 2012

The Role of Constitution Making and Institution Buiding in Furthering Peace, Justice and Development: South Africa’s Democratic Transition

The international community accepts that peace, justice and development are indivisible properties of human freedom and thus wants a more coordinated approach to postconflict recovery. Today, transitions to democracy are typically launched through constitutional negotiations and anchored in efforts to fix broken state institutions or create new ones. These are settled strategies for addressing the social and economic causes of conflict in troubled societies. Transitional justice (TJ) has been slow to appreciate or capitalize on the inherent potential of these political processes to further justice and peace. By not taking a wider view of the opportunities for change that are presented by the transitional moment, TJ limits its capacity to construct the institutions that must work if a return to conflict is to be prevented.With this in mind, prominent practitioners have begun to look at how to extend TJ’s brief to include a wider set of issues linked to social justice. They are also looking for concepts and tools to bridge the divide between the field and related disciplines. This article presents South Africa’s transition as a case study of this wider view and is written from the perspective of a practitioner who was involved in building the postapartheid democratic state. It aims to contribute to the current debate about TJ’s stake in postconflict transitions.

SOURCE

  • Author Derek Powell
  • Book or Journal International Journal of Transnational Justice
  • Vol. 4
  • No. 2
  • Publisher
  • City
  • Date 2010
  • Year
  • ISBN
  • ISSN
  • Edition
  • Series
  • Pages 230 - 249
  • Link Website
  • 5A - Region - Africa (Sub-Sahara) Capacity & Institution Building Civil Society Cold War III (1979-1991) Ethnicity Field Account Journal Article Non-State Actors Post 9/11 (2001-Present) Post Cold War (1991-2001) Power Rule of Law & Transitional Justice Single Case Study South Africa Transition
  • No comments