Transitional Justice and the National Reconciliation Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between transitional justice and
reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author aims to answer the
question how, to what extent and on the basis of what mechanisms
transitional justice contributes to reconciliation. In the first, descriptive part
of the article she introduces the term and the mechanisms of transitional
justice, and in the second, analytical part she examines their concrete form
in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their contribution to the process of
reconciliation, which is understood here as a renewal of relationships
between individuals and a recognition of one’s own responsibility for past
wrongs. The author concludes that transitional justice contributes to the
reconciliation process only in a limited way because of its low
trustworthiness, its low visibility and the overly small invesments in its
measures. To bring about a societal change transitional justice needs to be
implemented better, in a more thorough and sensitive way and especially
visibly above all in terms of restorative justice and truth telling.