Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice

Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice

The Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College Dublin fosters interdisciplinary research that explores how societies come to terms with episodes of extreme violence in war, civil war, and periods of prolonged civil and political unrest. The Centre brings together faculty and graduate students working in the fields of history, law, peace studies, sociology, theology and ethics. Its current projects address the themes of Justice, Transition, Governance and Memory and Reconciliation and draw from field and archival work in the Balkans, Eastern and Central Europe, Central America, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, as well as the experience of the Peace Process in Ireland, North and South. Researchers also are actively engaged with international post-conflict policy communities.

Research projects

The Centre for Post-Conflict Justice are carried out within three cross-cutting interdisciplinary strands: Justice, Transition, and Memory and Reconciliation

Justice

The theme of justice is examined within this strand and addresses norms, processes, and conceptions of local and international justice in post-conflict contexts.

Torture, Truth and Denial

This project focuses on truth commission reports and human rights documentation of torture practices. It addresses public debates on the legitimacy of torture practices, and considers the impact of torture on victims, torturers and wider society. 
Researcher: David Tombs

Globalizing Justice and the Prosecution of Atrocity

The evolution of an international criminal justice system is both a product and symptom of intensified processes of international integration. An examination of features of international trials considers the implications of these processes for the prosecution of extreme crimes and understandings of justice. 
Researcher: Rosemary Byrne

Rape in War Time

This project is in collaboration with a small team of international colleagues and in association with the International Committee of the Red Cross. It emerges from an international conference on Les Viols en temps de guerre: une histoire à écrire (Rape in Wartime: A History to be Written) in Paris in May 2009. The proceedings will be published in Paris in 2010. Among the issues explored is the place of rape in post-conflict experience and justice.
Researcher: John Horne

Discourse in Transition:  Ethics and Human Rights

Communitarianism within human rights discourse has particular relevance in post-conflict contexts. This research analyses the consequent dimensions and tensions.
Researcher: Linda Hogan

Transition

Projects within this strand explore issues related to transition from periods of atrocity, focusing on peace-building and governmentality.

Governing Transition

This consists in two interrelated projects. The first is concerned with the political rationality underpinning efforts by the liberal state to manage conflicts it constructs as ethnic. Community relations programmes and human rights provisions are usually central to peace processes, and this project focuses on the normative assumptions about culture and identity that underpin them. The second project is concerned with critics and criticism of the Good Friday Agreement and the Dayton Accords focussed on dissident subjects in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively. These two projects will be brought together in manuscript he is currently preparing a for publication by Routledge in 2010, entitled 'Governing Ethnic Conflict: Consociation, Identity and the Price of Peace.'
Researcher: Andrew Finlay

Paramilitary Violence After the Great War, 1918-1923

The continuation of violence after the formal conclusion of wars is the focus of this project that is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Researcher (and co-organizer): John Horne

Nonviolence in Political Theory

Non-violence in transition is addressed in this work through a broader study of the links between ethics and politics of nonviolent political action and Western political theory. It discusses issues such as civil disobedience, the legitimacy of the state, the nature of political power, and pacifism and international relations.
Researcher:  Iain Atack

Peace-Processes in Northern Ireland and Cyprus

The political proceses of peace building are analysed in light of the comparative experiences of Northern Ireland, Ireland and Cyprus. 
Researcher: Etain Tannam

Memory and Reconciliation

The theme of memory and reconciliation frames the projects within this strand which look at how victims, perpetrators, and their descendants, remember atrocities and how local and global communities ‘read’ the past.

Co-memory: Israeli Jews Commemorating the Palestinian Nakba.

This is a study of Co-memoration in the context of the Palestinian 1948 catastrophe by Israeli Jews.
Researcher: Ronit Lentin

Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism: Diversity, Dialogue and Reconciliation

The role of churches and faith communities in reconciliation in post-conflict transition in Northern Ireland and Ireland are explored in this project that is funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Researchers: Linda Hogan, Gladys Ganiel and Geraldine Smyth (with Andrew Pierce)

Towards Integrated Approaches to Peacebuilding

This research analyses the interplay of theological, ethical, psychological and ecclesiological perspectives on contributions to intercultural division, enmity and violence. This includes an investigation of the dynamics of loss, mourning, and reconciliation in post-conflict transition and an assessment of the self-critical and expressive role of the churches in moving beyond sectarianism and embodying peace. It also considers the process of inspiring hope and social trust within pluralist contexts and the re-imagination of an ecumenical theology of peace in Northern Ireland and beyond.
Researcher: Geraldine Smyth

International History of Concentration Camps until 1941

The history of Italian prisoners of war during the First World War is examined in this project that is part of a broader initiative based in the Centre for War Studies on the ‘International History of Concentration Camps until 1941.’ It has formed an international research network and won a major funding grant from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. 
Researcher: Alan Kramer

Events 2020

Events 2019

Events 2018

Events 2017

Events 2016

Events 2015

The Irish School of Ecumenics the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, the SSK Research Cluster and the University of North Korean Studies, Seoul.

Human Rights in the Korean Peninsula: Challenges to Peacebuilding

DATE: 29th July 2015
TIME: 5:30-7:30pm
VENUE: Lecture Room G16, Irish School of Ecumenics-Loyola Institute Building, Trinity College Dublin

Dr Bo-hyuk Suh is a Professor at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National University. He was an Expert Adviser on North Korean human rights for the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. His research focuses on peace and human rights issues in the Korean Peninsula from the perspective of international relations. He has been providing advice to both governmental and non-governmental organisations on human rights. Dr Rajiv Narayan is a Senior Policy Advisor at the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. He worked as a researcher for Amnesty International for thirteen years (until 2014), and produced work of international repute. He covered one of the most challenging regions concerning human rights in the world - East Asia, where he researched and reported extensively on North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. Please click here for the event programme. Please click here for the event flyer.

To register, please email Professor Jude Lal Fernando at fernanla@tcd.ie, or Dr Dong-Jin Kim at kimdj@tcd.ie.

The Irish School of Ecumenics, the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin & the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka Film Screening & Discussion:

'No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields'

DATE: 10th June 2015
TIME: 6-9pm
VENUE: Lecture Room G16, Irish School of Ecumenics-Loyola Institute Building, Trinity College Dublin

No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a feature documentary on the last phase of the war in Sri Lanka has highlighted mass atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people in the north and east of that island. Six years since the official end of the war and following a regime change in January 2015 there seems to be no mechanism for the pursuit of justice. The newly elected President has stated that he would not allow international investigations and has echoed the claim of the previous regime which asserted that the documentary was an outright fabrication and blocked its distribution in Sri Lanka. Following the documentary there will be a discussion with the film's director as well as an exiled Sri Lankan journalist and a journalist who has investigated British complicity about the issues raised by the film and the current human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Callum Macrae: The director of No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, writer, journalist and co-founder of Outsider Television in the UK. Bashana Abeywardena: An exiled Sri Lankan journalist, former editor of Hiru newspaper and convenor of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka - JDS. Phil Miller: A journalist, author of 'Britain's Dirty War Against Tamil People' and an expert witness at the People's Tribunal on Sri Lanka. All are welcome to attend.

Please register to book your place at irishpeaceforum@gmail.com or call 085 156 2980. 

The Centre for Post-Conflict Justice Booklaunch - 'Redeployment' by Phil Klay

TIME: 6pm
DATE: 28th May 2015
VENUE: IIIS Seminar Room, 6th Floor of the Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin klay-redeployment '"Redeployment" is military for "return", and Klay's fiction peels back every pretty falsehood and self-delusion in the encounter between veterans and the people for whom they supposedly fought.' - Dexter Filkins, New York Times. Phil Klay was named National Book Foundation '5 under 35' honoree. In 2015, he received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's James Webb award for fiction dealing with the US Marines or Marine Corps life and the National Book Critics' Circle John Leonard Award for fiction in any genre. He was also short-listed for the Frank O'Connor Prize.

The Irish School of Ecumenics, the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice (Trinity College Dublin), Carlow College (Co. Carlow), The Priory Institute (Tallaght) and Dublin City

Interfaith Forum Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom, Human Rights and Interreligious Perspectives

DATE: 12th March 2015
VENUE: Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin

Chaired by: Iain Atack and Gilian Wylie of Trinity College Dublin Speakers: Prof. Rosemary Byrne (School of Law, TCD) - Human Rights Perspectives: Widening the Lens Prof. Ronit Lentin (Retired Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, TCD) - Religion, Racism and Freedom of Speech Prof. Roja Fazaeli (Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, TCD) - Where are Women's Voices in Secular and Religious Discourses? Shaykh Dr. Muhammad Umar Al-Qadri (Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre, Ireland) - Freedom of Speech and Responsible Speech: Islamic Perspectives Ms. Heather Abrahamson (Irish Council for Christians and Jews) and Dr. Peter Admirand (Mater Dei Institute of Education, DCU) - Jewish Perspectives on the Other and Intereligious Dialogue Swami Purnananda (Spiritual Director of Nivedita Vedanta Society and the Eire Vedanta Society) - Hindu Perspectives on Freedom of Thought, Unity and Diversity Ms. Sinéad Lynch (Chairperson of the Dublin City Interfaith Forum) - Freedom and Global Citizenship: A Buddhist Perspective Prof. Andrew Pierce (Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD) - Religious and Secular Fundamentalisms: Christian Theological Perspectives

 

Events 2014

Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Analysis and Alternatives

DATE: 29th August 2014
TIME: 2 - 6:30pm
VENUE: Lecture Room G16, Irish School of Ecumenics-Loyola Institute Building, Trinity College Dublin

The seminar, which consists of two successive panels (Israel-Palestine Conflict Analysis, and Alternatives to Aggression and Militarism) with four speakers on each panel, is in response to the recent Israeli military attack on Gaza. It also provides an opportunity for deeper reflection and discussion about both the sources of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and alternatives to militarised approaches to the conflict. Please click here for the event programme. As places are limited, please confirm attendance by email to: alashqay@tcd.ie, by Tuesday, 26th August 2014. 

The Transitional Justice Institute, the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice & the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences Postgraduate

Research Student Seminar Day 2014

DATE: 7th November 2014
TIME: All day
VENUE: University of Ulster, York St. Campus (Belfast)

Call for Papers: Showcasing postgraduate research on human rights, transitional justice and peace building The Transitional Justice Institute (University of Ulster), the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice (Trinity College Dublin), and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (University of Ulster) invite proposals for a one-day postgraduate student research seminar to be held on Friday 7 November 2014. This year's event, on human rights, transitional justice and peace building, will encourage interdisciplinary exchange and networking around challenging questions which arise for societies emerging from conflict or dealing with the legacy of human rights abuses. Papers are invited from current PhD students, from any discipline, whose work relates strongly to the theme. Researchers wishing to be considered should submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, with their name, institution, discipline, year of study, and a 200 word biography, to Gwawr McGirr, mcgirr-g1@ulster.ac.uk by 31 August 2014. Places are necessarily limited, so unfortunately not every paper may be able to be accepted. We anticipate that final acceptances will be notified by the end of September. Non-presenting participants will then be welcome to register to attend, subject only to limitations of space. About the research day: This conference is being run by and for postgraduate students from universities across Ireland, in conjunction with the Transitional Justice Institute (University of Ulster), the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice (Trinity College Dublin), and the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (University of Ulster). Accepted papers will be organised into thematic panels, with short (max. 12 minute) summary paper presentations followed by expert feedback from an established academic in the field, then general Q&A. While there is no registration fee, and lunch will be provided on the day, we regret that we are unable to cover travel and accommodation costs. This event takes place during the Belfast version of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences, 1-8 November, and so there will also be other events of interest happening across the city About TJI: The Transitional Justice Institute, attached to the University of Ulster School of Law, studies the role of law and legal institutions in moves from conflict to peace.  The Centre for Post-Conflict Justice at Trinity College Dublin explores how societies come to terms with episodes of extreme violence in war, civil war and prolonged civil and political unrest. 

About IRiSS: The Institute for Research in Social Sciences at the University of Ulster works on a broad range of social and public policy matters. For further information, email tombsd@tcd.ie. For directions to the University of Ulster's Belfast Campus,

Irish School of Ecumenics

One-Day Conference: Power, Conflict, Resistance

DATE: 20/21st June 2014
TIME: 7pm on the 20th June;
9am - 6pm on the 21st June
VENUE: Hamilton Building on the 20th;
IIIS Seminar Room on the 21st

Since 1997, graduates from the Trinity College’s MPhil Race, Ethnicity, Conflict have played a leading role in research on migration, ethnicity, antiracism and conflict in Ireland and overseas. The graduate conference will explore the theme of “Power, Conflict, Resistance”. It will include a reading by Fishamble Theatre Company of extracts from Rosaleen McDonagh’s new play Protégée and paper presentations by MPhil graduates. The keynote lecture will take place in the Hamilton Building, Trinity College Dublin at 7pm on the 20th June and will be given by veteran social activist and human rights campaigner Bernadette McAliskey who currently works with migrants as part of the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (STEP). To register for either the keynote speech on the 20th or the conference on the 21st, please email mphilrec@tcd.ie.

Irish School of Ecumenics and the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice

Transformations of Identity: The Political Psychology of War Rape in Bosnia

DATE: 12th May 2014
TIME: 5pm - 6:30pm
VENUE: Neil Hoey Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin

Dr. Inger Skjelsbaek is deputy director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo as a psychologist and peace researcher, specializing in sexual violence in war. The lecture examines developments in the scholarly understandings of the impact and use of sexual violence in war, and also discusses methodological and ethical concerns. It will discuss her experiences of fieldwork in Bosnia, and interactions with victims and survivors of war traumas. This event is co-organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics and the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice through Research Incentive Scheme Funding from the Trinity Long Room Hub. Please click here for the event flyer. For further information email tombsd@tcd.ie. Please click here for a copy of Dr Skjelsbaek's presentation.

Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin & Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster Film and Guest Speaker:

Amnesty and Reconciliation - Post-Conflict Justice in Brazil DATE: 16th April 2014
TIME: 9:30am - 4pm
VENUE: Irish School of Ecumenics,

683 Antrim Road, Belfast Film:

9.30am Repare Bem (2013, 95 mins). A left-wing militant dies in 1970, after having been tortured for 109 days by the Brazilian military. His girlfriend Denise, imprisoned in Brazil during her pregnancy, manages to flee to Chile after the birth of her daughter and meet her parents. But the Pinochet coup forces them to leave. After 40 years in Italy and Holland, Denise and her daughter are given amnesty and reparation from Brazil. Director Maria de Medeiros Speaker: 2.00pm.

Marcelo Torelly has served as advisor for the Brazilian Ministry of Justice on Transitional Justice issues and Head of the Historical Memory Department of the Amnesty Commission (see further details below). Organisers: The day is co-organised by the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice and the University of Ulster Transitional Justice Institute (free to all participants). It will serve as a follow-up to the seminar by Marcelo Torelly at the TJI on 15th April 2014, the day before (please click here for details), but attendance at the 15th April seminar is not required. There will be a break at lunchtime to allow attendance at INCORE Accounts of the seminar at the Public Records Office. Participants wishing to attend either the TJI seminar on the 15th April or the INCORE seminar on 16th April please follow the links above and reply direct to the respective contact emails.

About the Speaker: Marcelo Torelly has served as advisor for the Brazilian Ministry of Justice on Transitional Justice issues; head of the Historical Memory Department of the Amnesty Commission (a Brazilian State agency in charge of reparations and memory programs for dictatorship victims), and manager of the Transitional Justice Exchange and Development Program jointly sponsored by the Brazilian Federal Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He has lectured in the theory and philosophy of law at Brasilia Catholic University in the Brazilian capital. He holds a J.D. from Brazil's Catholic University of Porto Alegre, and an M.Sc. from the Brasilia University Law School (UnB) where he is currently a PhD candidate. In 2013 he was a visiting researcher at the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School. He has published works on transitional justice and human rights in English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Please click here for a copy of the event flyer. To register your interest, please contact: tombsd@tcd.ie 

Irish School of Ecumenics & the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin

'The Body of War: Media, Ethnicity and Gender in the Break-up of Yugoslavia' With Dr. Dubravka Zarkov, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands

DATE: 26th March 2014 TIME: 6pm - 7:30pm
VENUE: Ui Chadhain Theatre. Room 2041B, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin

The lecture will examine representations of female and male bodies in the Croatian and Serbian press in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s, during the war in which Yugoslavia disintegrated. It explores the process through which ethnicity was generated, showing how lived and symbolic female and male bodies became central to it. Dubravka Zarkov is Associate Professor in Gender, Conflict and Development Studies at the International Institute for Social Studies in the Hague. The lecture is co-organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics and the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice. It is supported by the Visiting Professorships and Fellowships Benefaction Fund. All welcome. 

Researchers

Director

Jude Lal Fernando
Assistant Professor in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies, School of Religion

Research Fellows

Iain Atack
Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, School of Religion

Brendan Browne
Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconcilitaion, School of Religion (Belfast Campus)

Rosemary Byrne
Founding Director of Centre for Post-Conflict Justice and  Associate Professor in International and Human Rights Law, School of Law

Andrew Finlay
Assistant Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology

Linda Hogan
Professor of Ecumenics, School of Religion

Anne Holohan
Associate Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology

Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic
Marie Curie Research Fellow, School of Religion

Dong Jin Kim
Irish Research Council Marie Curie Co-fund CAROLINE Fellow, Irish School of Ecumenics, School of Religion

David Landy
Assistant Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology

David Mitchell
Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconcilitaion, School of Religion (Belfast Campus)

Melanie Otto
Assistant Professor, School of English

Geraldine Smyth
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Religion

Etain Tannam
Associate Professor in International Peace Studies, School of Religion