After Atrocity Examples from Africa: The Right to Education and the Role of Law in Restoration, Recovery, and Accountability

Authors

Erika George, Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

ISSN

1558-9226

Publisher

Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Language

en-US

Abstract

This article begins to consider these important questions through a discussion of the multiple models used to address, and redress massive human rights violations in South Africa, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. I argue that lawyers and policy makers working to advance the rule of law must consider the role of law in transitional societies not only as a means of ensuring that perpetrators of grave human rights abuses are held accountable, but also as a foundation for the future. I submit that for the rule of law to take root, the conditions of a society must be fertile; and respect for the right to education must be honored in order to cultivate such conditions. Creating durable solutions to humanitarian and security problems requires a long-term commitment to rebuilding and reforming repressive or conflict-ridden societies. In particular, long-term solutions require building or rebuilding the rule of law by creating a widely shared public commitment to human rights, and a preference for relying on law and the political process rather than resorting to violence to resolve conflict. ⁴ Education is a vital precondition for strengthening the rule of law and enabling reconstruction that has not received sufficient attention in the literature on transitional justice.

Part II of this article briefly reviews a predominant model of transitional justice: the criminal trial; as well as some of the criticisms of this approach. Part Ill describes the human rights violations that occurred in South Africa, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone and offers an assessment of the different institutions created to respond to the violations in each situation. Part IV argues that the experience of delivering justice in Africa after atrocities teaches that lawyers and others who care about promoting the rule of law must move beyond a narrow criminal prosecution model for transitional justice, and towards a broader scope that creates space for a range of approaches to address the variety of problems faced by post-conflict societies. This section also posits that the lesson to be learned is that there is no one model in the abstract which by design will deliver justice in Africa. Rather, designs for delivering justice will depend on the context of each situation such that multiple methods of response may be necessary. Part V concludes with a discussion of the contribution that respect for, and realization of, the right to education may offer to averting future atrocities and systematic human rights violations.

Recommended Citation

Erika George, After Atrocity Examples from Africa: The Right to Education and the Role of Law in Restoration, Recovery, and Accountability , in 5 Loyola University Chicago International Law Review 59 (2007).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3852