International Actors and Traditional Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa Policies and Interventions in Transitional Justice and Justice Sector Aid

This book studies the role of international actors in the areas of transitional justice and justice sector aid with respect to traditional justice and legal pluralism in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a number of case studies, the chapters describe the kinds of policies and interventions that are supported and financed by international actors, with special attention for the kinds of strategies that are deployed in order to address areas of tension with human rights. The volume then explores the relationship between international actors' practices and the body of knowledge that exists in these domains, as well as in general socio legal theory. Thereby, this contribution offers empirical data drawn from examples of who is doing what in a series of case studies, identifies regional trends and links them to the existing literature by examining the extent to which the insights generated so far by scholars and practitioners is reflected in the work of international actors. Based on this, the book formulates a number of hypotheses that may explain current trends and proposes additional issues that need to be considered in future research agendas. Finally, the volume links two fields of intervention that have so far evolved in rather parallel ways and explores the commonalities and differences that can be found in the areas of transitional justice and justice sector aid.

Giselle Corradi is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Human Rights Centre at the Law Faculty of Ghent University. She studied law in Buenos Aires before moving to Ghent, where she completed her Masters in Comparative Studies of Culture (2005) and her PhD in Law (2012). Her PhD research dealt with the role of international development actors regarding human rights and legal pluralism in sub-Saharan Africa, with case studies in Sierra Leone and Mozambique.Before joining the Human Rights Centre as a researcher in 2008, she worked as a consultant for fair trade projects in Guatemala and Peru for the Durabilis Foundation (2006-2007). In her current position as a researcher she combines her expertise in the domains of law, anthropology and development, with particular attention for gender.She is also a board member of the Flemish Interuniversity Research Network on Law and Development Law&Dev and of the Commission of Legal Pluralism. She is also a member of the human rights component of the VLIR-UOS Institutional Cooperation Programme with Mozambique DESAFIO and she is editorial assistant for the "journal Human Rights and International Legal Discourse" (HRILD).Martien Schotsmans holds a Masters in Law, a Masters in Criminology and a Post-Graduate in International Politics. She has worked as a private practice lawyer in Belgium for about ten years, mainly in criminal law. In the following years, she was in Rwanda with Avocats Sans Frontières to provide legal assistance to accused and victims of genocide in domestic trials, in Chad with FIDH to conduct investigations in the Hissène Habré case and in Sierra Leone with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. After that she worked with Avocats Sans Frontières to organize legal assistance for defendants and victims of international crimes in domestic trials in the DRC and at the ICC. In between, Martien did consultancies on judicial reform, on GBV and transitional justice in Rwanda, DRC, Benin, Morocco, etc. More recently, she conducted research in the field of transitional justice in Sub-Saharan Africa and more in particular on the role of tradition-based justice. She worked until 2013 at the Leuvens Institute of Criminology at KU Leuven (Belgium) where she provides research support and teaching assistance. She is also preparing a PhD (since 2010) on the topic of "Globalisation and Localisation in Transitional Justice and the challenges for tradition-based justice". Since 2013 she is director of RCN Justice & Démocratie.