Transitional Justice - Lustration, Truth-Revealing and Reconciliation in the Political Transitions of the Czech Republic, South Africa and Northern Ireland

Abstract: During the last decades there has been an ever-increasing amount of democratic transitions taking place all over the world. In connection to this phenomenon, transitional justice has developed as a subfield in post-conflict peacebuilding, dealing with the judicial aspect of transitions. In applying theoretical constituents of transitional justice, this study examines the concepts of lustration (i.e. political purges) and truth-revealing processes in relation to reconciliation and democratic consolidation in South Africa, the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland. Though culturally and socially somewhat differing cases, they share similar problematic issues. In examining the effects of lustration and truth-revealing, the conclusions are not unambiguous. Most findings indicate that lustration do not considerably contribute to reconciliation, but could, if comprehensively implemented, contribute democratic consolidation through the removal of counter-democratic elements within institutions. Truth-revealing, on the other hand, is considered to contribute to reconciliation and subsequent societal change indirectly to democratic consolidation. The different circumstances in the examined cases, the type of rule prior to transition and the mode of transition have also had implications in the choice and feasibility of implementing lustration or truthrevealing.