The Gender Politics of De-militarising Northern Ireland: Theorising Gender Power in the Context of Conflict Transformation

Abstract

This paper examines 'mainstream' analysis of community-based restorative justice programmes in Northern Ireland through a critical feminist lens. The paper begins by outlining the development of community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) and then considers how the analysis of this local level form of conflict transformation has been analysed in ways that exclude issues of gender power. The emergence of CBRJ During the political conflict, paramilitary systems of informal justice became deeply entrenched in many working class communities in Northern Ireland. Despite the more recent process of conflict transformation, paramilitary systems of justice have proved difficult to eradicate. In response community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) projects emerged in both loyalist and republican residential areas to offer an alternative form of communal justice. Restorative justice is based around an ethic of non-violence, and focuses on repairing the harm caused by crime and anti-social behaviour through processes of mediation and conferencing. Championed by ex- paramilitaries these projects have been framed as community-led initiatives that transfer responsibility for tackling community crime from the paramilitaries to the community itself. Given the challenges surrounding the elimination of paramilitary activity in the context of conflict transformation, the CBRJ initiatives that have emerged in Northern Ireland have received much academic attention.