Legitimacy, accountability, victims' participation and reparation in transitional justice settings - lessons from and for Colombia

人们普遍认为，过渡时期司法有助于建设和平、防止新的冲突和促进冲突受害者的权利。它还可以帮助确定不平等和边缘化的根源。因此，它可以以各种方式促进发展：通过促进法治、加强机构、增加诉诸司法的机会、减少不平等和促进性别平等。目前的主要观点是，在发生大规模侵犯人权事件的武装冲突时期之后，需要在真相、司法、赔偿和保证不再发生的机制共存的基础上，对TJ采取一种全面的办法。然而，目前尚不清楚如何解决这一方法的不同组成部分之间可能存在的紧张关系，以及如何成功地将其付诸实践，以便加强而不是破坏TJ进程的合法性。同样，TJ对发展产生积极影响的必要条件仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。哥伦比亚是世界上第一个设计了TJ程序的国家，该程序旨在将TJ的整体方法理论付诸实践。这就把对实现和平、加强机构和改善冲突受害者的处境具有深远意义的新问题放在了首位，这些受害者往往是社会中最没有权力的群体。哥伦比亚TJ进程的司法部分，即和平特别管辖权的合法性从一开始就受到高度质疑。这在一定程度上是由于这样一个事实，即在对TJ实施整体办法时，它向大规模暴行的肇事者提供特别制裁（不包括监禁），以换取真相、赔偿和不再发生的保证。在公平正义的支持者中，这种方法被认为是合法的，因为它“以受害者为中心”，旨在确保程序的设计和实施，使受害者能够有效地参与每一个阶段，并对如何最好地满足他们获得真相、正义和赔偿的权利有发言权。其反对者认为这是有罪不罚。SJP仅在其第二年，其运作的这个早期阶段提供了一个独特的机会来分析在实践中实施TJ整体方法的一些特点的潜力和挑战。这种分析在这个特定的时间点上是至关重要的，因为它将在哥伦比亚建设和平进程的发展过程中提供反馈，它还将为学术辩论和拟订世界范围内未来的TJ进程提供信息，这些进程主要在中低收入国家进行，因此与发展有着重要的联系。通过各种研究方法，特别是半结构化访谈、焦点小组和公开听证会中的参与者观察，我们将收集和处理原始数据，了解受害者和其他关键利益攸关方如何看待哥伦比亚对TJ实施整体方法的看法，特别是他们认为削弱或增加SJP执行的司法程序合法性的主要问题。我们将通过分析哥伦比亚对TJ的新方法和从中吸取的教训，来补充现有的学术文献。我们的研究还旨在为哥伦比亚和国际上的TJ实践提供信息。在哥伦比亚，通过专门旨在协助SJP处理紧迫问题的简报文件，例如如何以最大限度地提高其合法性的方式实施受害者参与和特别制裁的恢复性部分，以及如何界定关键的法律概念，例如选择案件进行调查的标准。

It is widely accepted that Transitional Justice (TJ) contributes to building peace, preventing new conflict and promoting the rights of victims of conflict. It can also help to identify the root causes of inequality and marginalisation. It can therefore enhance development in various ways: through promoting the rule of law, strengthening institutions, increasing access to justice, reducing inequalities and promoting gender equality. The currently predominant view is that a holistic approach to TJ needs to be adopted after periods of armed conflict in which massive human rights violations occurred, based on a coexistence of mechanisms of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. However, it is not yet clearly understood how to resolve the possible tensions between the different components of this approach and how to put it into practice successfully so that the legitimacy of a TJ process is enhanced rather than undermined. It is equally still an open question what would be necessary for TJ to have a positive effect on development.Colombia is the first country worldwide that designed a TJ process that aims to put into practice the theory of the holistic approach to TJ. This puts to the forefront novel questions of far-reaching significance for achieving peace, strengthening institutions, and improving the situation of victims of conflict who are often the most disempowered in a society. The legitimacy of the justice component of the Colombian TJ process, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), has been highly contested from the outset. This has partly been due to the fact that, in implementing the holistic approach to TJ, it provides the perpetrators of mass atrocities with special sanctions (that do not include imprisonment) in exchange for truth, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. Among the supporters of the SJP, this approach is regarded as legitimate because of its "victim-centred" focus which is meant to ensure that procedures are designed and undertaken so that victims can participate effectively at every stage and have a say on how to best satisfy their rights to truth, justice and reparation throughout. Its opponents regard this as impunity.The SJP is only in its second year and this early stage of its operation provides a unique opportunity to analyse the potential and challenges of the implementation of some of the features of the holistic approach to TJ in practice. Such an analysis is of crucial importance at this particular point in time, as it will feed back into the Colombian peace-building process while it evolves, and it will also inform academic debate and the formulation of future TJ processes worldwide, which primarily take place in LMIC and therefore have an important link to development. Through various research methods, in particular semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation in public hearings, we will collect and process original data on how the implementation of the holistic approach to TJ in Colombia is perceived by victims and other key stakeholders, and in particular on what they perceive as the main issues that weaken or increase the legitimacy of the justice process as carried out by the SJP. We will add to the existing academic literature through our analysis of the novel Colombian approach to TJ and lessons to be learned from it. Our research also aims at informing TJ practice, both in Colombia and internationally. In Colombia through briefing papers specifically aimed at assisting the SJP in addressing pressing questions such as how to operationalise victim participation and the restorative component of the special sanctions in a way that maximises their legitimacy, and how to define key legal concepts such as the criteria according to which cases are selected for investigation.