ABSTRACT
The popular uprisings that started in Tunisia and have spread around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were in many ways fueled by demands for justice and accountability for human rights abuses. Transitional justice has thus emerged as a priority for those societies undergoing political transitions, with the international community joining in. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent decline of ideologies such as pan-Arab nationalism, anti-colonialism and socialism that served as ideological foundations for many regimes inevitably undermined the legitimacy of ruling parties and their leaders across the Arab region. While the focus of the international media on human rights abuses that occurred during the Arab uprisings, most transitioning societies in the region are confronted with decades-long legacies of human rights violations. The centrality of socio-economic concerns to the Arab Spring uprisings seems to indicate that transitional justice in region well have a broadened purview compared to precedent experiences in the rest of the world.
