ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the paths and the scope of transitional justice and reconciliation currently underway in Côte d’Ivoire. The country is undergoing a transitional process following the violent military and political conflict between rebels and government from 2002 to 2011. Côte d’Ivoire has seen the intervention of the international community in the resolution of this crisis, with a United Nations operation in place since 2003. The ongoing process of transitional justice and national reconciliation is subject to differentiated designs, practices, and interpretations that undermine and exacerbate antagonisms in the aftermath of war. This situation raises questions about the meaning of reconciliation, particularly tensions between the mechanisms supported by the international community and the feeling of an “unfair” transitional justice without reconciliation at the local level. How do the perspectives and strategies supported by international, national, and local communities induce confusion in perceptions of national reconciliation in Côte d’Ivoire? This chapter draws on the social learning approach and is based on qualitative field research conducted in Abidjan and the west of the country from 2014 to 2015, including individual and group interviews, observation of the process, and secondary literature on the political history of Côte d’Ivoire.
