Education and Transitional Justice: Opportunities and Challenges for Peacebuilding

"The contribution that education can make to peace depends not only on measures such as the physical reconstruction of schools, the reincorporation of young people into the education system, and school curricula that promote universal values of tolerance and social cohesion, but also on the sensitivity of reforms and programs to the legacies of past injustices in the education sector itself and the public culture."

This report, part of a joint research project by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the intersections of education, transitional justice, and peacebuilding, explores how a transitional justice framework can help to identify educational deficits relating to the logic of past conflict and/or repression and inform the reconstruction of the education sector. Drawing on 17 comparative experiences from around the world, it looks at how formal and informal education can help facilitate the work of transitional justice measures and vice versa. The case studies come from papers commissioned by Learning for Peace, a 4-year partnership between UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands, the national governments of 14 participating countries, and other key supporters. It is a cross-sectoral programme focusing on education and peacebuilding whose goal is to strengthen resilience, social cohesion, and human security in conflict-affected contexts, including countries at risk of - or experiencing and recovering from - conflict.

As the authors explain, some have called attention to the need for a more systematic consideration of the relationship between transitional justice and education. Transitional justice, understood as judicial and non-judicial measures that seek to promote accountability and redress for massive violations of human rights, is increasingly recognised as a fundamental part of peacebuilding efforts. Combined with other sets of policies, and to the extent that it provides recognition to victims and helps to restore civic trust in state institutions and among citizens, transitional justice can help to strengthen the rule of law, address grievances among affected communities, and prevent the recurrence of violations. In the context of coming to terms with an abusive past, in addition to being something that should be valued for its own sake, education for its part has at least 2 goals: It should contribute to developing children's abilities and skills for participating in a country's productive and sociopolitical realms, and it should help enhance the capacity of citizens, especially adolescents and children, to think critically about the present and the past so they can foresee and construct a better future.

Section I, which sets out the report's framework, offers a discussion of what it means to consider transitional justice and education as separate but related elements of societal responses to injustices associated with massive human rights violations, and the contribution that synergies between the two fields can make to establish sustainable peace and prevent the recurrence of abuses. Section II maps out the different components of education reconstruction in which a transitional justice framework can be expected to make a difference. "Given the legacies of past injustice, a first step toward changing the education system should be undertaking a comprehensive review of existing norms and policies with the aim of removing all harmful remnants of the previous repressive logic from the system. This process importantly will be contextual, requiring an assessment in each particular case of exactly how the previous logic affected education in a manner that is relevant from a transitional justice perspective." This process also includes: incorporating lessons from transitional justice processes into educational curricula; increasing access to education through reparations or redress measures; and shaping school culture and governance, paedagogy, teaching tools, and teacher capacity and training.

One insight included here: "When devising methods to teach the violent past in post-conflict and post-authoritarian contexts from a transitional justice perspective, it is necessary not only to take into account issues such as children's developmental capacities, security, and psychological well-being...but also to put in place pedagogical approaches that promote their capacity for critical thinking and engaged citizenship in a manner relevant to their immediate lives. Importantly, these methods need to be adapted to the particular challenges of different contexts, based on an understanding of how broader conceptions of human rights can be linked to the real experiences of children in post-conflict societies....[T]here is often a need to switch from teacher-centered and authoritarian ways of teaching to those that favor more egalitarian and participatory methods that encourage students' critical, independent, and creative thinking; appeal to their emotional imagination and capacity to feel empathy; and foster their disposition for active citizenship. Overall, pedagogical methods should aim to strengthen the culture of democracy among students - reinforcing the idea that disagreement and deliberation are part of the rules of society, while contributing to the development of students' creativity, attitudes, and skills to learn to listen to others and solve conflicts in a peaceful manner."

It is noted that, to go beyond the acquisition of knowledge, values, and attitudes in the classroom, paedagogical approaches in transitional justice contexts should encourage participatory methodologies. Learning to become a democratic citizen is not something one learns just by being in society; there is both procedural knowledge to learn (a new constitution, for example) and behaviours and dispositions that must be developed and practiced. Students can be encouraged in multiple ways to develop participatory skills, as evidenced in Peru's PROVER initiative (Promotores de la Verdad or Promoters of Truth), implemented by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The programme's aim was to engage youth from universities all over the country in the truth-telling process, with the ultimate goal of promoting their civic consciousness and active participation. What started as a limited idea eventually involved approximately 800 participants aged 18 to 25 who became active participants in the work of the commission by taking testimony, disseminating information, and creating community forums. After the PROVER program officially ended, young volunteers became "memory workers" and continued to use other means, including arts and memorialisation initiatives, to promote the legacy of the commission and its work.

The next 3 sections consider a range of political and material challenges that actors are likely to face in trying to link transitional justice and education and discuss some strategic considerations for implementing proposed ideas more effectively and sustainably. Section III highlights the different actors that can play a role in linking transitional justice and education, including transitional justice bodies, civil society groups, school communities, and government, each of which can be an agent of change or an obstacle. Section IV examines the more capacity- and resource-based constraints that efforts to address the past through education are likely to face. Section V emphasises the importance of identifying opportunities for change while maintaining realistic expectations for the change that can be achieved.

Section VI distills the findings to a set of guidance points for relevant actors. The authors stress that it is important to remember that policies aimed at addressing past injustice through education are very likely to be contested. The specific context will influence the level of this contestation as well as the usefulness of any recommendations. That said, general recommendations are offered:

• "Include the education sector as part of a societal response to past massive human rights violations. Promote education reform that is sensitive to the legacies of the past within the education system and include the teaching of the past in the education system in a way that is conflict-sensitive, gender-sensitive, culturally adequate, and socio-emotionally informed.
• Adopt a context specific and incremental approach to effecting change at the broadest system and societal levels.
  • Consider timing, sequencing, and opportunity, as some activities may be more politically feasible later in a transition than earlier.
  • Assess the education system first; take steps to address and remove the most harmful elements of the system before enacting new policies.
  • Search for specific entry points to reform that are politically and materially feasible as well as partners with expertise and local knowledge to enact change. Focus initially on quality and expansion when possible. Set priorities in contexts of limited resources.
• Consult with, work to attain the support and input of, and engage all relevant stakeholders and actors - including students, teachers, parents and caregivers, school administrators, local and national government officials, education experts, transitional justice practitioners, civil society groups, and communities, including members of all identity groups and parties to the conflict, in every step of the process. Do not assume that actors will desire reforms, such as the full integration of schools or the incorporation of a justice agenda into classroom learning. Identify types of opposition or lack of support to be challenged as well as those that may be legitimate and/or unlikely to be overcome.
• Take steps to measure the impact of initiatives to address the past through education; at the societal level this is difficult, given the multiple factors involved and the inherent difficulty in assessing social interventions, but monitoring and evaluation at the program level can demonstrate micro-level effects on students and teachers.
• Manage expectations by acknowledging the limitations of transitional justice measures, education reform, and civil society efforts. Weak institutions and lack of resources can undermine reform efforts, making it necessary sometimes to advocate for broader reconstruction and development."