Retaliation in Transitional Justice Scenarios

Abstract

This chapter discusses the role of retaliation in the Transitional Justice Scenarios of Argentina and Colombia, drawing attention to the continuation of state violence and human rights violations in these two South American countries following the implementation of legal and non- legal mechanisms of TJ. Subsequently, it attempts to demonstrate how the implementation of TJ mechanisms may fall short in preventing cycles of violence that allow powerful actors, linked to the interests of the state, to continue performing the retaliatory practices that historically caused major ‘social harm' in the transitional societies . The rationale of this article consists of two central questions: How can transitional societies deal with both the legacy and reconfiguration of state violence? Moreover, to what extent do orthodox understandings of law and TJ serve as a means for the recreation of the retaliatory practices that shaped the conflicts that TJ measures are supposed to address?