ABSTRACT
The Joint Communication of 2011 recommends that the EU develop a transitional justice policy 'through its external action' suggesting that such a policy would be implemented through the range of external action instruments. In many cases policy provisions for transitional justice exist, but are not put into practice. The concepts for SSR and DDR support are cases in point the EU has policy to further justice-sensitive SSR and DDR, but does not implement it. A transitional justice policy is not in itself enough to fill the credibility gap between principle and practice it has to be implemented. The High Representative should ensure that transitional justice, along with other policies to promote human rights and democracy, are indeed integrated across the external actions of the EEAS and Commission. The EU needs urgently to develop guidelines for its mediators on justice issues. This should be coherent with the transitional justice policy, but is also qualitatively different and should be a standalone document.
