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Transitional Justice for Multiple Pasts

Objective

Post-dictatorial and post-conflict governments enact transitional justice programs to reckon with the legacy of crimes that occurred in the recent past by punishing perpetrators, offering justice to victims, educating the public, and providing guarantees of non-repetition. What happens when there is not one past in need of redress, but multiple pasts? This was the situation in many post-dictatorial and post-conflict states at the start of their transitions, with abuses committed across distinct regimes by multiple perpetrators against various groups of victims who demanded accountability. Numerous examples suggest that governments selectively redress some pasts but not others. The first project to systematically consider the causes and consequences of such official selection. MULTIPAST has five main objectives. 1) To identify the pasts that governments in new democracies acknowledge and rectify. 2) To identify the programs that redress the legacy of such pasts. 3) To investigate the reasons why governments choose to redress, ignore or downplay specific pasts, and to establish whether such selective reckoning affects the legitimacy of the government and accountability in the country. 4) To understand the benefits and costs of such selective reckoning, its impact on democratization, and its policy implications. 5) To distinguish the impact of selective reckoning on victims and victimizers. Through a targeted comparison of eight post-dictatorial and post-conflict cases drawn from four distinct regions and the use of a wealth of primary and secondary sources of information, MULTIPAST unveils the interactions between reckoning programs meant to redress multiple pasts, the strategic choices made by transitional governments, and the (unexpected) consequences of such decisions for victims, victimizers and the larger society. This project advances the theory and practice of transitional justice for the benefit of international, national and local governments and societies.

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Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2025-ADG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITATEA LUCIAN BLAGA DIN SIBIU
Net EU contribution
€ 2 480 833,75
Address
BD VICTORIEI 10
550024 Sibiu
Romania
Region
Macroregiunea Unu Centru Sibiu
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (1)