Transitional Justice and Socio-Economic Harm

<p>Maintaining the importance of socio-economic issues in devising transitional justice mechanisms this book examines the widespread practice of land grabbing in Afghanistan.</p><p>On 3 September 2003 100 armed police officers bulldozed around 30 homes in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul Afghanistan evicting over 250 people. Historically the land was part of the property of the Ministry of Defense of which a zone was allocated to the ministry’s employees who had built homes and had lived there for nearly 30 years. After the demolition however the land was distributed among 300 high-ranking government officials including ministers deputy ministers governors and other powerful warlords. Land grabbing in Afghanistan has become a widespread practice across the country. Based on over 50 semi-structured interviews with key informants and group discussions with war victims and local experts in Kabul the current book examines the relevance of transitional justice discourse and practice in response to this situation. Following a critical criminological concern with social harm the book maintains that it is not enough to consider a country’s political history of violent conflict and the violation of civil and political rights alone. Rather to decide on appropriate transitional justice mechanisms it is crucial to consider a country’s socio-economic background and above all the socio-economic harm inflicted on people during periods of violent conflict.</p><p>This original and detailed account of the socio-economic challenges faced by transitional justice mechanisms will be of interest to those studying and working in this area in law politics development studies and criminology.</p>