Over the past two decades, the international community has employed various transitional justice mechanisms to promote reconciliation and establish the rule of law in countries transitioning from civil war. The effect of these mechanisms on long-term peace however, remains ambiguous. Despite the challenges of implementing transitional justice, the establishment of the rule of law and the reconciliation of victims and perpetrators of grave violations of human rights remain essential to ending violence and encouraging public participation in post-war society. This study examines the use of transitional justice mechanisms implemented at the end of the civil wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, East Timor, and Rwanda to evaluate their impact on internal violence, cooperation among domestic constituencies, and the establishment of reliable democratic practices to discern whether these mechanisms contributed to long-term stability. This study ultimately found that transitional justice mechanisms contributed to stability in all three cases by fostering public trust in legal and democratic institutions that helped achieve stability.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)