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Developing the African Union transitional justice policy: a study in the practice(s) of expertise in international relations

Lühe, Ulrike. Developing the African Union transitional justice policy: a study in the practice(s) of expertise in international relations. 2023, Doctoral Thesis, University of Basel, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Abstract

Transitional justice has shifted from a domestic policy issue towards one that is also an international relations issue. Consequently, transitional justice debates now also focus on issues of sovereignty, interventionism and postcolonialism. This is been nowhere more the case than in Africa, where donors and international partners are perceived to hold outsized influence and where historical and political contexts are such that sovereignty, independence, and African ownership are key to the normative commitments of many governments and intergovernmental structures.
A striking example of this is the contested debate around the influence of the International Criminal Court in Africa. The Court is seen by many as a symbol of undemocratic global governance. The debate around the role of international and African actors, norms, approaches and priorities, however, also plays out in other transitional justice contexts. African governments have responded to this through various degrees of (non)cooperation with international institutions, but they have also sought to strengthen the continental infrastructure relating to transitional justice. This has culminated in the adoption in 2019 of the African Transitional Justice Policy which aims to provide guidance to governments and societies undergoing transitional justice processes.
During the ten-year process of developing the policy, which was led by the South African Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission, considerable emphasis was put not only on political sovereignty but also on epistemic sovereignty: The policy process relied almost exclusively on African expertise in a bid to challenge not only international interventionism but also the marginalized role many African experts continue to play in the global field of transitional justice.
This thesis takes the concept of expertise as its entry point to study the development of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy as an example of transnational policymaking in International Relations. Taking a practice approach to the analysis this thesis studies expertise as a practice that mediates between knowledge and power and which operates between agency and structures. In other words, the conceptual framework employed here assumes that expertise is structurally contingent, but that it is also a way of exercising agency vis-à-vis these structures. The AUTJP is an apt example for the study of transnational transitional justice policymaking as it is not only one of the few regional transitional justice policies, but, more importantly, it is a process at the intersection of Africa’s international relations and its domestic politics. It is through this African Union policy that member states seek to challenge internationalized, criminal accountability-focused transitional justice models, civil society seeks to challenge the impunity of African governments and their own marginalization in global and African transitional justice debates, and the AUC seeks to carve out a new policy area in which to claim a role.
This thesis adds important insights to the transitional justice scholarship. It complexifies the concept and practice of expertise in the field of transitional justice which has hitherto been discussed largely as an actor attribute that authorizes and legitimates the role especially of international actors. It also shows that transitional justice is embedded in international politics and global power structures, but that it is also a site of contestation of these structures. The practice(s) of expertise both constitute and challenge these structures.
Advisors:Goetschel, Laurent
Committee Members:Jones, Briony and Murithi, Tim
Faculties and Departments:04 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > Departement Gesellschaftswissenschaften > Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft > Politikwissenschaft (Goetschel)
UniBasel Contributors:Goetschel, Laurent
Item Type:Thesis
Thesis Subtype:Doctoral Thesis
Thesis no:15064
Thesis status:Complete
Number of Pages:viii, 291
Language:English
Identification Number:
  • urn: urn:nbn:ch:bel-bau-diss150643
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:04 Feb 2025 05:30
Deposited On:03 Feb 2025 10:15

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