Publication: Post-Conflict Justice and Sustainable Peace
Date
2007-04
ISSN
Published
2007-04
Author(s)
Lie, Tove Grete
Binningsbø, Helga Malmin
Gates, Scott
Abstract
No systematic study has examined the
effect of post-conflict justice on the duration of peace on
a global basis. This paper attempts to fill that void by
building on a newly constructed dataset (Binningsbo, Elster,
and Gates 2005), which reports the presence of various forms
of post-conflict justice efforts (trials, purges, reparation
to victims, and truth commissions) as well as processes
associated with abstaining from post-conflict justice
(amnesty and exile). It investigates the long-term effects
of post-conflict justice on the duration of peace after
conflict. It uses a Cox proportional hazard model to analyze
the influence of the various types of post-conflict justice
on the length of the peace period before the recurrence of
violent conflict. Post-conflict trials as well as other
types of justice do lead to a more durable peace in
democratic as well as non-democratic societies, but the
results are weak and are therefore difficult to generalize.
Forms of non-retributive justice (that is, reparations to
victims and truth commissions), however, are strongly
associated with the duration of peace in democratic
societies, but are not significant for non-democratic
societies. Amnesty tends to be destabilizing and generally
associated with shorter peace duration, but exile tends to
lead to a more durable peace.
Citation
“Lie, Tove Grete; Binningsbø, Helga Malmin; Gates, Scott. 2007. Post-Conflict Justice and Sustainable Peace. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4191. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/e697fd80-c026-5a41-9fa8-fcba854e4ad1 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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