Implementing transitional justice

Many nations today are deciding what, if anything, they should do about past violations of internationally recognized human rights. These abuses include war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, rape, and torture that may have been committed by the government, by its opponents, or by combatants in an internal armed conflict. Some of these societies are established democracies; some have begun a transition to democracy, but others have not. The challenge of "transitional justice," as the term is increasingly used, is how a nation should respond to past evils, and, in the case of an incomplete and fledgling democracy, how it may do so without undermining its new democracy or jeopardizing its prospects for long-term democratic and equitable development.