Elin Skaar

Chr. Michelsen Institute | CMI

This article explores ‘late justice’ in the context of settler democracies with a history of racism, using Norway as a case study. It examines the background for the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2018 to investigate the consequences of historical and ongoing assimilation of the indig...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. – William Hazlitt, essayist (1778 – 1830) The 13 Latin American truth commission reports analyzed in detail in this book have proven to be durable testimonies to the work undertaken by the commissions that wrote them. Written over a period of almost 30 years...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

Based on fieldwork that is unprecedented in scope, this two-volume project provides the first systematic study of the formulation and implementation of the recommendations of 13 Latin American truth commissions. Beyond Words Vol. I examines the variations in truth commission recommendations across 13 Latin American cases. Insights are provided re...

The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions emerges at a time when there is a confluence of two trends. The first is a growing critique of truth commissions as being unresponsive to the socioeconomic needs of transitional societies as part of growing criticism of transitional justice as a whole. The second is the increasing use, salience, pro...

ABSTRACT Truth commissions are an integral component of transitional justice, that is formal and informal mechanisms set up by the state or civil society to address human rights violations committed in the past. This article examines the claims related to how truth commissions may contribute to peace, democracy and reconciliation; and takes stock o...

This is the first book to comprehensively and systematically trace the trajectory from impunity towards accountability for past human rights violations in the Latin American region. Based on rich historical analysis, the international team of authors track, across time, the accountability achievements and challenges of nine countries: Argentina, Br...

After Violence: Transitional Justice, Peace, and Democracy examines the effects of transitional justice on the development of peace and democracy. Anticipated contributions of transitional justice mechanisms are commonly stated in universal terms, with little regard for historically specific contexts. Yet a truth commission, for example, will not h...

Civil-military relations constitute a crucial element in the transition to substantive democracy all over the world. During periods of authoritarianism or civil war, the military in Latin America has been responsible for extensive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Since the reintroduction of democracy in the region in the 1980s and 1...

Many Latin American countries are moving towards increased accountability for past human rights violations, and there is a growing global consensus that international law does not allow some crimes simply to be exempted from prosecution. Uruguay has had a deeply split response to these developments. While the Supreme Court and the political elite i...

This article analyses how state and non-state actors have tried to address the human rights violations and war crimes committed during the civil war in Mozambique (1976–92). While the political elite opted for amnesty laws, and urban civil society organisations remained largely on the sidelines, in rural areas, war survivors and the post-war genera...

The transitional justice (TJ) field has gone through phases in which the role of actors and their environments – or structure and agency, more broadly viewed – have been alternatively emphasised. This article privileges agency as the focal point of analysis. The main task is to concep-tualise ways in which actors promote, or obstruct, transitional...

La justicia postransicional se inició en el Cono Sur de América Latina a mediados de la década de 1990 y gradualmente se ha expandido a otros países que buscan afrontar violaciones de derechos humanos cometidas durante los regímenes autoritarios que dominaron el continente desde la década de 1970 hasta inicios de la década de 1990. Para diferenciar...

This comparative analysis, focusing on Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, explores the complex relationship between executive politics and judicial action, showing that judicial independence is a crucial factor in prosecution. It will engage Latin Americanists as well as all who are concerned with justice and human rights around the world.

When preliminary research for this book started in 1998, General Augusto Pinochet was still head of the armed forces in Chile and enjoyed senatorial immunity as senator-for-life. Peru’s president Alberto Fujimori was undermining the authority of the judiciary to secure reelection while using secret death squads to finish his battle against the left...

Since the start of the new millennium, Argentina and Chile have led the way as Latin American protagonists of post-transitional justice. Uruguay has followed suit, albeit slowly and on a much smaller scale than its neighbors. These three Southern Cone countries, along with Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, have joined forces to hunt down retired milit...

Chilean human rights lawyer Hugo Gutiérrez posed this pointed question at the turn of the millennium. A decade later, Alexandra Huneeus drew attention to another apparent paradox: “Why did so rightsaverse a judiciary suddenly place itself in the thick of the country’s most contentious rights issue, at times pushing beyond the government in its zeal...

During Argentina’s “dirty war,” from 1976 to 1983, one of the darkest practices was the kidnapping of newborn children, delivered in secrecy in the dank basements of torture centers by women who were never seen again. Unlike in Chile and Uruguay, where the repression mainly targeted men, women made up almost one-third of the 12,000 or more people w...

In scholarship on human rights policies during democratic transitions, the focus has been on the executive for too long. It is time to shift attention to another important actor: the courts. Although many scholars have written on the courts in recent years, the links between constitutional reform and justice for past human rights violations remain...

At the beginning of the millennium, the fieldwork for this book pursued the question of why the Uruguayan courts lagged behind their Chilean and Argentine counterparts in ensuring accountability for past human rights violations. A decade later, much has changed, and an equally interesting question arises: why did Uruguayan judges in the mid-2000s f...

Introduction: Power and Accountability in Latin America and Africa Courts' Accountability Functions: A Framework for Inquiry The Accountability Functions of Latin American Courts Explaining the Rise of Accountability Functions of Costa Rica's Constitutional Court Comparing Courts' Accountability Functions in Africa Does Legal Tradition Matter? The...

Many countries across the globe have in the past two decades undertaken substantial judicial and legal reforms to strengthen the democratic character of their governments. Yet, the ability and willingness of courts to restrain elected officials vary greatly. This book describes these experiences, analyzes the reasons for existing variations, and he...

The last two decades have witnessed a transformation of superior court behavior in many less developed countries. These courts have metamorphosized from being moribund, rubber-stamping institutions with little importance in political matters to more forceful, assertive institutions that constrain the behavior of popular branches of government and t...

Similar to the African cases discussed in the previous chapter, Mozambique’s judiciary suffers from a lack of staff, funds, and other resources. Not unlike Uganda, Mozambique has emerged from a context of prolonged civil war preceded by colonial rule, and for a long time, formal court structures simply were not functional. Similar to its neighbors...

This chapter compares the accountability functions of courts in Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. These five countries share important characteristics that suggest a similar role for the courts; yet, the accountability functions of the higher courts differ significantly, both across countries and over time. How can this variation...

The previous chapter contrasted the rise of Colombia’s “hyperactive” Constitutional Court with the mixed record of the Argentine Supreme Court and the unquestionable reluctance of Chile’s highest court to routinely exercise its accountability function. Of these three countries, Colombia’s Constitutional Court was clearly the most extreme case of ju...

This book has addressed the puzzle of why, over the last two decades, some superior courts in less developed, democratic countries have increasingly exercised an accountability function, while others have remained relatively deferential to the popular branches of government. Our examination of the high courts in ten countries on two continents has...

This chapter examines the accountability function of superior courts in three Latin American countries—Argentina, Chile, and Colombia—in the last two decades.1 This comparison appears promising because the respective courts have assumed very dissimilar roles in countries that share a common colonial and independence history, similar legal tradition...

This article attempts to explain why Uruguayan judges have lagged behind judges in Chile and Argentina in the prosecution of the military for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship period in the 1970s and 1980s. By tracing judicial human rights activity in Uruguay from the transition to democratic rule in 1985 until the end of 20...

This paper is about the role that may be envisioned for the courts in Angola with respect to the poor. Looking at the period from 1992 – 2004, it analyses the factors that are necessary for getting social rights litigation successfully through the courts – and what kind of impediments that exist. In spite of rather wide constitutional guarantees of...

Public faith in the asylum system is based, among other things, on whether authorities involved in the asylum process are able to distinguish ordinary refugees from asylum-seekers who have committed crimes against humanity or other serious crimes. This report, commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion in 2004, examines c...

Creating a viable judiciary and strengthening its democratic functions has been a main concern of both national governments and donors over the last two decades. This report attempts to chart and systematise the efforts that have gone into the area of judicial reform. That includes various efforts at improving the functioning of a country’s legal s...

Este artículo trata sobre las reformas judiciales en Sudamérica, durante los años 90. Muestra que tanto en el caso de la Argentina como en el de Chile, las reformas a los códigos de procedimiento estuvieron motivadas por tres factores centrales, vinculados con el doble proceso de democratización y liberalización económica: i) la preocupación con la...

Domingo Pilar, and Rachel Sieder, eds. Rule of Law in Latin America: The International Promotion of Judicial Reform. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 2001. Figures, notes, bibliography, 176 pp.; paperback $19.95. - Volume 45 Issue 1 - Elin Skaar

In 1997, Ireland Aid (IA) established a Human Rights and Democratisation (HRD) scheme in order to assist projects outside IA’s programme countries. Its broad objective is to assist the development of democratic processes and institutions and the promotion and protection of human rights, mainly through support for relatively small-scale projects tha...

Introduction Repression and the Discourse of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone Shaping the Public Sphere and the Legacy of Human Right Violations National Reconciliation and the Disruptive Potential of the Legacy of Human Rights Violations Restructuring the Realm of Human Rights in the Southern Cone The Multiple Refraction of the Various...

Luis Roniger, and Mario Sznajder. The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Tables, notes, bibliography, index, 367 pp.; hardcover $82. - Volume 43 Issue 1 - Elin Skaar

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2002. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 443-466).

This paper is about how varying degrees of judicial independence may influence policy making in the field of human rights. I explore factors that may account for why some Latin American courts, years after the return to democratic rule, are currently prosecuting (ex) military officers for crimes they committed under authoritarianism, while other co...

Gross human rights violations have constituted a hotly contested national issue in many recent transitions from authoritarianism to democracy. This article analyses how newly elected democratic governments have dealt with violations committed by officials of previous authoritarian regimes. Empirical evidence from around 30 (mainly) Latin American a...

This paper analyses why Uruguayan judges have lagged behind judges in Argentina and Chile in the prosecution of its military for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The onset of large-scale trials in Argentina and Chile is attributed to a combination of judicial activism, a sustained demand for justice, and in the case of Arg...

This paper is about how varying degrees of judicial independence may influence policy making in the field of human rights. I explore factors that may account for why some Latin American courts, years after the return to democratic rule, are currently prosecuting (ex) military officers for crimes they committed under authoritarianism, while other co...

"December 1994." Slightly revised version of the author's master's thesis submitted to the University of Bergen, May 1994. Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-191).

Koplinga mellom menneskerettar og næringslivsinteresser har for alvor vorten satt på dagsorden dei siste par åra. I stadig sterkare grad vert det stilt krav til bedriftane om at dei ikkje kan forhalda seg passivt til brot på menneskerettane i land dei investerar i. Men korleis veg ein profitt og moral opp mot einannan? Med utgangspunkt i ein analyt...