ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the transformations in transitional justice as an idea that scholars first drew upon to describe democratic transitions. It describes the circulation of transitional justice discourse to the Middle East. The chapter focuses on Syria, where there is ongoing, destabilizing violence. It suggests that the globalization of transitional justice might better be understood as yet another example of humanitarian politics, whereby actors draw on the idea. The idea of transitional justice, and the mechanisms it describes, can reinforce a problematic, liberal assumption of individual agency and a linear narrative of progressive social and political change. Legal ideas such as transitional justice are a tool that a variety of actors, including policy-makers, advocates, and even rebels, can use to ensure their goals and strategies. A new coalition, called the Afghanistan Transitional Justice Coordination Group, was active in 2010 and 2011, and tried to revive this Action Plan and promote transitional justice interventions.
