Browsing by Author "Revkin, Mara"

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Open Access
Advancing Peacebuilding Through Promoting Human Rights and Inclusive Governance. North and East Syria as a Case Study
(2024-05-01) Alhajj, Imad
Human rights violations, corruption, and weak rule of law are major conflict-driven factors threatening peace and the possibility of democratic governance in the North and East Syria (NES) region, mainly caused by the combined effects of weak political, legal, and technical institutions capacity and accountability mechanisms of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in NES region, and exacerbated by instability and insecurity, economic woes, and a climate-conflict nexus impact. A big part of the problem is the knowledge gap between theory and practice. As a result, the international community is missing the opportunity to advance peace and democratic governance. This study seeks to address these problems in the post-conflict and fragile environment. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in NES region as a case study. Particularly, this study asks what programming, lessons learned, and best practices are suggested by the experiences of local Syrian non-governmental organizations (LNGOs) and civil society to protect human rights and promote inclusive governance in the NES region. How can donors and major international NGOs better connect with and empower the work of the local Syrian NGOs and civil society efforts to advance peacebuilding in the NES region's fragile environment? The introduction provides a concise overview of the link between inclusive governance, human rights, and peacebuilding, as well as the research question and the client. The Problem section provides an overview of Autonomous Administration in the NES region, which faces multifaceted governance and human rights challenges due to political, legal, technical, environmental, and social problems that cause a fragile environment and relapse into violent conflict in the NES region. The methodology section is based on utilizing mixed methodology, literature review, and survey of local Syrian NGOs and civil society in the NES region, as well as conducting qualitative and quantitative methods analysis of primary data with heavy reliance on qualitative analysis. In the Search for Solution section, the study argues that human rights and inclusive governance are fundamental for peacebuilding, and international-led peacebuilding faces cultural and structural challenges and provides ‘alternative approaches’ to address the lack of ‘Political Will’ in peacebuilding and combating corruption. The survey results and discussion section provide a platform for the local Syrian voices on issues of human rights and inclusive governance priorities and strategies to address partnership challenges, lack of long-term perspective, and undemocratic practices of the International NGOs and donors that are problematic to advancing inclusive, context-sensitive approach to support peacebuilding in the NES region. The conclusion and recommendations section suggests an inclusive, holistic strategy that would bring all actors together to establish a clear path toward achieving an overarching strategic vision of preventing relapse of conflict, democratic governance, and building sustainable peace.
Open Access
Evidence-Based Transitional Justice: Incorporating Public Opinion Into the Field, With New Data From Iraq and Ukraine
(Yale Law Journal, 2024) Revkin, Mara; Alrababah, Ala; Myrick, Rachel
The field of “transitional justice” refers to a range of processes and mechanisms for accountability, truth-seeking, and reconciliation that governments and communities pursue in the aftermath of major societal traumas, including civil war, mass atrocities, and authoritarianism. This relatively new field emerged in the 1980s as scholars, practitioners, and policymakers looked for guidance to support post-authoritarian and post-communist transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Since then, the field has grown rapidly—so rapidly that it is outpacing its capacity to learn from past mistakes. Recent methodological advances in the study of public attitudes about transitional justice through quantitative surveys and qualitative interview methods provide unprecedented insights into how different mechanisms—including domestic and international prosecutions, truth commissions, amnesty laws, and compensation—are perceived by their intended beneficiaries. The results have been troubling. Numerous studies in diverse contexts found that some of the most well-known transitional justice mechanisms, including those employed in South Africa, Rwanda, and Cambodia, failed to achieve their objectives of peacebuilding and reconciliation. In some cases, these policies had harmful consequences for their intended beneficiaries, including retraumatization and perceived “justice gaps” between victims’ preferred remedies and their actual outcomes. There is an urgent need for the field of transitional justice to learn from this growing body of empirical research to develop evidence-based policies and programs that achieve their intended objectives. This Feature critically reviews the intellectual development of the field, consolidating empirical findings of relevant studies across disciplines—law, political science, sociology, economics, public health, psychology, and anthropology—and identifying open debates and questions for future research. We focus on research about public attitudes toward transitional justice in the communities directly impacted by conflict. In addition to reviewing previous research, we present new data from original public opinion surveys in Iraq and Ukraine relevant to ongoing transitional justice efforts in those countries. We use this evidence to identify lessons learned, including mistakes, in the design and implementation of previous transitional justice processes. We conclude by discussing the normative and prescriptive implications of our findings for efforts to improve future transitional justice laws and policies.