Transitional Justice and Reconciliation

Transitional Justice and Reconciliation

• Head of Pillar – Dr. Yoav Kapshuk

  

  I am a senior lecturer and head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel, and a visiting professor and head of the Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Pillar at the Jena Center for Reconciliation Studies, Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. Previously, I was a visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). My research focuses on transitional justice, reconciliation, peacemaking, and peacebuilding, with particular emphasis on Israeli Palestinian relations. My work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journalsExternal link including the International Journal of Transitional JusticeExternal link and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace PsychologyExternal link. Beyond my academic work, I am a certified MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) and practice Vipassana meditation daily.

  For getting involved, please contact Dr. Yoav Kapshuk: kapshuk@gmail.com

  More information about Dr. Yoav Kapshuk and Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Pillar: click hereExternal link

• Description and Objectives

  Reconciliation requires concrete political mechanisms to become reality. Transitional justice provides some of these mechanisms: trials, truth commissions, reparations, and institutional reforms that address past atrocities and create foundations for coexistence. This Pillar examines how transitional justice serves reconciliation across diverse contexts globally, from post conflict societies to established democracies confronting historical injustices, and increasingly, democracies experiencing backsliding in the current era.

  The research agenda focuses on four key dimensions. First, it explores transitional justice in an age of resurgent authoritarianism. While transitional justice initially emerged alongside democratization waves in the 1990s, today's context is starkly different. Democracies are eroding worldwide, and far right movements increasingly contest established narratives about past atrocities, undermining reconciliation processes. This demands new research on how transitional justice functions or fails when democratic foundations crumble, and whether it can serve as resistance to authoritarian resurgence.

  Second, the Pillar examines civil society's role in truth seeking and reconciliation when states refuse accountability. In contexts where governments deny past wrongs or block formal justice processes, non-state actors often lead grassroots truth seeking initiatives. This research investigates how these activities challenge official denials and prepare societal ground for future reconciliation, even before formal peace or political transitions occur.

  Third, it asks whether transitional justice activities genuinely transform intergroup relations. Beyond documenting violations, the Pillar examines if practices like community dialogues, public acknowledgment ceremonies, and victim testimony cultivate empathy and shift collective attitudes from enmity toward willingness to coexist. This connects political level interventions with community psychology, exploring whether these mechanisms can change the emotional and cognitive foundations necessary for reconciliation.

  Finally, the Pillar analyzes how designing transitional justice mechanisms in peace negotiations can facilitate political breakthroughs. Moving beyond peace versus justice debates, the Pillar examines how restorative approaches including official apologies, truth telling processes, and symbolic reparations address victims' fundamental needs for recognition and acknowledgment, often proving essential to reaching sustainable agreements that all parties can accept.

  This framework connects reconciliation philosophy with political reality, relevant to all societies confronting legacies of injustice. By establishing this Pillar, JCRS addresses the political and institutional foundations that make reconciliation possible, complementing the Center's existing strengths in ethics, religion, and psychology. This integrated approach attracts scholars and practitioners seeking to translate moral imperatives into concrete mechanisms for justice and healing. The Pillar bridges theory and practice, creating space where reconciliation ideals meet the messy realities of power, politics, and transformation.

• Expected Activities

  1.International Research Group: Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in an Age of Democratic Backsliding. The Pillar will convene an international research group of scholars examining how transitional justice and reconciliation function amid global democratic erosion and authoritarian resurgence. The group's activities will proceed through several stages:

  • Formation of the research group and regular meetings to develop comparative analytical frameworks.
  • Individual paper development by group members on transitional justice and reconciliation themes.
  • Presentation of papers at an international symposium at JCRS bringing together scholars and practitioners.
  • Transformation of selected papers into articles for publication in a collaborative edited volume.

  2.Doctoral Education
   The Pillar will contribute to JCRS doctoral education through specialized supervision of research on transitional justice and reconciliation topics, seminars examining the justice reconciliation nexus, methods training for empirical reconciliation research, and integration of research findings into the broader JCRS curriculum.

  3.International Network Development

  The Pillar will develop and expand an international network of collaborative partnerships with transitional justice institutions and centers worldwide; and with civil society organizations working on issues of reconciliation and transitional justice. This network will facilitate comparative research, knowledge exchange, and collaborative projects across diverse global contexts.

• Get Involved

  We welcome scholars to join our international research group, propose case study presentations, and collaborate on publications examining the transitional justice reconciliation nexus.

  Doctoral students are invited to explore supervision opportunities, attend specialized seminars, and participate in collaborative research projects on transitional justice and reconciliation.

  Practitioners from the field are encouraged to share experiences, collaborate on practice oriented research, and access emerging research findings and policy relevant insights.

  Institutions interested in developing research partnerships, facilitating student and faculty exchanges, or co-organizing events and conferences on transitional justice and reconciliation are welcome to reach out.

  For getting involved, please contact Dr. Yoav Kapshuk, e-mail: kapshuk@gmail.com