Transitional Justice in Peace Agreements: The Development of Transitional Justice and the Role of the ICC

Abstract

This thesis investigated how transitional justice was represented in large-scale conflict peace agreements in the period 1990-2024. Furthermore, how different transitional justice mechanisms and approaches were used in relation to judicial accountability, and the role of the ICC was analysed. A quantitative approach, where csv-files containing coded peace agreements provided by PeaceRep were analysed in the programme JASP. Longer and shorter peace agreements were separated to keep the lack of variables in the short agreements from interrupting the analysis. The results showed that judicial accountability in longer peace agreements increased with 291 % after the creation of the ICC in 2002. However, the other transitional justice variables increased as well after the establishment of the Court. Moreover, the inclusion of transitional justice variables, except for the general references, were stronger in the longer peace agreements that included judicial accountability than in those that did not. This was the case for both before and after the ICC. Most of the peace agreements took place in countries that had not ratified the Rome Statute. Yet, it was found that the judicial accountability in three peace agreements in Sudan was affected by the ICC, albeit Sudan not being a part of the Court. Although the ICC is now aiming for closer cooperation with national authorities as well as other relevant actors, this thesis did not find the new policy sufficient in addressing the complex and multifaceted context it is operating in. Thus, a suggestion to include other transitional justice mechanisms and approaches in Article 17 of the Rome Statute has been made. This can be one of many steps in the direction of dissolving the transitional justice hierarchy, and hopefully promote local inclusion, which is crucial in the strive for justice, reconciliation, and sustainable peace.