Table Of ContentTransitional Justice and the Arab Spring
This book presents a varied and critical picture of how the Arab Spring demands
a re-examination and re-conceptualization of issues of transitional justice. It dem-
onstrates how unique features of this wave of revolutions and popular protests that
have swept the Arab world since December 2010 give rise to distinctive concerns
and problems relative to transitional justice. The contributors also explore how
these issues in turn add fresh perspective and nuance to the field more generally.
In so doing, it explores fundamental questions of social justice, reconstruction and
healing in the context of the Arab Spring.
Including the perspectives of academics and practitioners, Transitional Justice and
the Arab Spring will be of considerable interest to those working on the politics of
the Middle East, normative political theory, transitional justice, international law,
international relations and human rights.
Kirsten J. Fisher is a researcher at the Human Rights Research and Education
Centre, University of Ottawa and an affiliated research fellow at the Erik Castrén
Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki. She is
the author of Moral Accountability and International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice
for Child Soldiers.
Robert Stewart is a researcher at McGill University’s Interuniversity
Consortium for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, and has recently returned
to his doctoral studies at the University of Exeter. His work focuses on Islamist
groups and Islamist political parties, as well as on transitional justice in the Arab
world.
Transitional Justice
Series Editor: Kieran McEvoy
Queen’s University Belfast
The study of justice in transition has emerged as one of the most diverse and intel-
lectually exciting developments in the social sciences. From its origins in human
rights activism and comparative political science, the field is increasingly charac-
terised by its geographic and disciplinary breadth. This series aims to publish the
most innovative scholarship from a range of disciplines working on transitional
justice related topics, including law, sociology, criminology, psychology, anthro-
pology, political science, development studies and international relations.
Titles in this series:
Transitional Justice, Judicial Truth, Denial and Transition: The
Accountability and the Rule of Law Contested Past in Northern Ireland
Hakeem O. Yusuf (2010) Cheryl Lawther (2014)
The Era of Transitional Justice: Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
The Aftermath of the Truth and Edited by Kirsten Fisher and Robert Stewart (2014)
Reconciliation Commission in South
Africa and Beyond Forthcoming titles in the series:
Paul Gready (2010)
The Concept of the Civilian
The Dynamics of Transitional Justice Claire Garbett
Lia Kent (2012)
The Judiciary and the Politics of
Gender Politics in Transitional Transition: Saviours, Scoundrels,
Justice Scapegoats
Catherine O’Rourke (2013) Marny Requa
Identity, Reconciliation and Transitional The Art of Post-Dictatorship: Ethics and
Justice Aesthetics in Transitional Argentina
Nevin T. Aiken (2013) Vikki Bell
Corporate Accountability in the Context International Trials and Reconciliation
of Transitional Justice Janine Clark
Sabine Michalowski (2013)
The Trouble with Truth: Dealing with the
Families of the Missing Past in Northern Ireland
Simon Robins (2013) Kieran McEvoy
Transitional Justice Theories Transitional Justice, Peace and
Edited by Susanne Buckley Zistel, Teresa Koloma Beck, Democracy: Conflict Resolution in
Christian Braun, Friederike Mieth (2014) Context
Elin Skaar, Camila Gianella and Trine Eide
Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
Edited by
Kirsten J. Fisher
and Robert Stewart
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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a GlassHouse Book
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Kirsten J. Fisher and Robert Stewart
The right of Kirsten J. Fisher and Robert Stewart to be identified as editors
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Transitional justice and the Arab spring / edited by Kirsten J. Fisher, Robert Stewart.
pages cm. – (Transitional justice)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-415-82636-5 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-203-43114-6 (ebk) 1. Law–Political aspects–
Arab countries. 2. Transitional justice–Arab countries. 3. Arab Spring, 2010- I. Fisher, Kirsten,
editor of compilation. II. Stewart, Robert, editor of compilation.
KMC70.T73 2014
340’.115–dc23
2013043458
ISBN: 978-0-415-82636-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-43114-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Foreword xi
Anthony f. LAng Jr.
After the Arab Spring: a new wave of transitional justice? 1
Kirsten J. fisher And robert stewArt
PART ONE
The context and getting Arab Spring transitional justice
right 15
1 The Arab world after the popular uprisings: a spirit
restored? 17
bAsseL f. sALLouKh
2 Building a future, exhuming the past: the struggle for
accountability in the wake of regional uprisings 36
Anne MAssAgee
3 Transitional justice in the wake of the Arab uprisings:
between complexity and standardisation 54
hAbib nAssAr
4 Difficult but ultimately rewarding: lessons from
transitional justice in Latin America 76
Andrew g. reiter
5 The costs of avoiding transitional justice: lessons from
Lebanon 94
orA szeKeLy
vi Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
6 Risks and rewards: lessons from Central and Eastern
Europe’s transitional justice experiences 112
KLLOAuNs DLbOAOcNNhD MAOnNn, robert stewArt And Kirsten J. fisher
PART TWO
Issues pertaining to Arab Spring transitional justice 129
7 Challenges of representation and inclusion: a case study of
Islamist groups in transitional justice 131
Line KhAtib
8 Transitional justice and the Arab Spring from a gender
perspective 151
eLLOhANMD MOAnNe A
9 Egypt and the struggle for accountability and justice 172
MichAeLL wOANhiDdO hNAn nA
10 Justice after the war: The International Criminal Court
and post-Gaddafi Libya 188
MArK Kersten
11 Selectivity, legitimacy and the pursuit of post-Arab Spring
international criminal justice 208
Kirsten J. fisher
12 Transitions in the Middle East and North Africa: new
trajectories and challenges for transitional justice? 226
hugo vAn der Merwe
Index 239
Notes on Contributors
Klaus Bachmann is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. Previous assignments include
The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins
University in Washington, DC, the Center for European Studies at Renmin
University, Beijing and the Universities of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Vienna
and Bordeaux. He specialises in European integration and transitional justice
and is the author (together with Thomas Sparrow-Botero and Peter Lambertz)
of When Justice Meets Politics: Independence and Autonomy of Ad Hoc International
Criminal Tribunals (Peter Lang International, 2013).
Kirsten J. Fisher is a researcher at the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights
Research and Education Centre, an adjunct Professor in the School of
Political Studies and an affiliated research fellow at the Erik Castrén Institute
of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki. She is
the author of Moral Accountability and International Criminal Law (Routledge, 2012)
and Transitional Justice for Child Soldiers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). She writes
on issues of transitional justice, specifically post-atrocity accountability, and is
an associate editor of the Finnish Yearbook of International Law.
Michael Wahid Hanna is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. He
works on issues of international security, international law and US foreign
policy in the Middle East and South Asia. He has published widely on US
foreign policy, arab politics and international law, including articles in the New
York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Democracy, Middle East
Report and World Policy Journal, and contributes frequently to Foreign Policy. He
served as a consultant for Human Rights Watch in Baghdad in 2008. Prior to
joining Century, Hanna was a senior fellow at the International Human Rights
Law Institute. He received a JD from NYU School of Law. Hanna is a term-
member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mark Kersten is a PhD student in international relations at the London School
of Economics where his research focuses on the effects of the International
Criminal Court’s investigations and arrest warrants on peace processes in
viii Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring
Libya and northern Uganda. Kersten is also the creator and co-author of Justice
in Conflict, a blog that examines the challenges and dilemmas of pursuing justice
in the context of ongoing and recently concluded conflicts. In addition to his
studies, Kersten has worked as a researcher for Lawyers for Justice in Libya,
Justice Africa and the Refugee Law Project.
Line Khatib is a senior fellow at the Interuniversity Consortium for Arab
and Middle Eastern Studies (ICAMES), McGill University (Canada), and
an Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah (United Arab
Emirates) where she teaches political science. She is the author of a number
of works including Islamic Revivalism in Syria: the Rise and Fall of Ba´thist Secularism
(Routledge, 2011) and ‘Islamic Revival and the Promotion of Moderate Islam
from Above’ (2013). Her research interests lie within the fields of comparative
politics, religion and politics, and authoritarianism and democratisation in the
Arab region, with a particular focus on Islamic groups as political movements.
Anthony F. Lang, Jr. is Professor in the School of International Relations at
the University of St Andrews, holds a Chair in International Political Theory,
and also directs the Centre for Global Constitutionalism. He has taught at
the American University in Cairo and served as a programme officer at the
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. His research and teaching
focus on international political theory, global constitutionalism, the just war
tradition and Middle East politics.
Elham Manea is an Associate Professor (Privatdozentin) of Political Science at
the University of Zurich specialising in the Middle East. She is also a writer, a
human rights activist and is of dual nationalities, Yemeni and Swiss. She has
published academic and non-fiction books in English, German and Arabic
in addition to two novels in Arabic. Her latest academic book is entitled The
Arab State and Women’s Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance (Routledge,
2011). She works at the Political Science Institute, University of Zurich and
is a consultant for Swiss government agencies and international human rights
organisations. She is a Member of the Federal Commission for Women Affairs.
Anne Massagee is an expert in human rights and transitional justice in the
Middle East and North Africa, with over 20 years of experience across the
region. From 2006 to 2013, she worked for the International Center for
Transitional Justice, and previously with such NGOs as al-Haq: Law in
the Service of Man and Amnesty International. She has authored numer-
ous publications on human rights and humanitarian law, including, most
recently, ‘Beyond Compensation: Reparations, Transitional Justice and the
Palestinian Refugee Question’, in Compensation to Palestinian Refugees and the
Search for Palestinian/Israeli Peace (available online at www.peacepalacelibrary.
nl/ plinklet/index.php?ppn=357965604). She has an LLM in International
Human Rights Law from the University of Essex (UK) and a BA in History
from Emory University (US).
Notes on Contributors ix
Habib Nassar has 15 years of experience working on human rights and tran-
sitional justice in the Arab region. He is currently the Director for the Middle
East and North Africa at PILnet. Before joining PILnet, he advised the UN
Office of the High Commisioner for Human Rrights on transitional justice
in North Africa, worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice
where his positions included Director of the MENA Program, and worked for
several grassroots and international human rights groups. He teaches transi-
tional justice and human rights at Hunter College in New York. He has an
LLM from New York University, an MA in International Law from Université
Paris II and a law degree from Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut.
Andrew G. Reiter (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an Assistant
Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, where his teaching and
research focus on political violence, conflict-resolution, and transitional justice.
He is co-author of Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing
Efficacy (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010) and has published widely
on global transitional justice processes. Reiter is co-founder of the Transitional
Justice Data Base, a project that has developed a global dataset of transitional
justice mechanisms, and he is also a collaborator on two ongoing transitional
justice data collection projects funded by the National Science Foundation.
Bassel F. Salloukh is Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and
Associate Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese American University
(LAU) in Beirut. He is author, co-author and co-editor of a number of books,
chapters and journal articles on Arab politics, the domestic and foreign poli-
tics of Lebanon and Syria and Middle East international relations, including
Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Arab World (Lynne
Rienner Publishers, 2012), Mapping the Political Landscape: An Introduction to Political
Science, 2nd edn (Nelson Publishers, 2007) and Persistent Permeability: Regionalism,
Localism, and Globalization in the Middle East (Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004).
Robert Stewart is a research fellow at McGill University’s ICAMES, has worked
as a researcher at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights
Studies run by Lieutenant-General (retired) Roméo Dallaire and Professor
Frank Chalk, and has recently returned to his doctoral studies at the University
of Exeter. His work focuses on Islamist groups and Islamist political parties, as
well as on transitional justice in the Arab world. His most recent publication is
a co-authored chapter on Syria entitled ‘The Secular Uprising and the Possible
Resurgence of Post-Islamism’, in Popular Protest, Politics and Post-Islamism in the
New Middle East (IB Tauris).
Ora Szekely is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at
Clark University in Worcester, MA, where she teaches classes on civil war,
comparative politics and the politics of the Middle East. Her research examines
the consequences of the domestic and foreign policy decisions made by non-
state military actors in the Middle East. Her current book project explores the
