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Chapter 4 - Intersectionality: A Feminist Theory for Transitional Justice
- Edited by Martha Albertson Fineman, Estelle Zinsstag
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- Book:
- Feminist Perspectives on Transitional Justice
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 16 December 2020
- Print publication:
- 02 May 2013, pp 89-114
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- Chapter
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Summary
The globalisation of transitional justice as a framework for the resolution of conflicts is recognised as a remarkable phenomenon of the post-Cold War era. The transitional framework is regarded by advocates as a mechanism for enabling politically conflicted and post-colonial societies to institutionalise universal principles of equality and human rights within processes of statebuilding or regime reform. Intersectionality theory, too, has achieved an extraordinary status ‘at the cutting edge of feminist theorising’, particularly in the European context. It enables us to analyse these principles in practice. In particular, it poses useful theoretical and empirical questions for explaining gendered dimensions of transitions in cultures that are described as ‘deeply divided’. This chapter explores these questions in relation to women's absence in peace negotiations and the silence in negotiations on material matters to do with women's day-to-day lives, with a focus on Northern Ireland's 1998 Agreement as a site for intersectional analysis. The pragmatic implications of universal claims for equality are examined in this jurisdiction where political and religious inequalities are recognised in law. The analysis affirms critical correlations between structural, economic and political inequality, violent conflict and the limitations of law as a discursive framework for conflict resolution. An intersectional conceptualisation of gender aids in understanding the local realities of women's lives in this and other transitions. This also goes some way to explaining women's political agency and the dilemmas facing feminist advocacy in these circumstances. The original intersectional triad of race/class/ gender is flexible. This is why it is such a useful tool for feminist analysis in contexts as diverse as the ‘Arab Spring’, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. Each of these locations, and most, if not all, transitional jurisdictions are characterised by histories that invoke identity discourses. Intersectionality theory can be used to examine the material and cultural potency of these discourses in women's lives locally and globally. This leads to the recommendation that targeting deeprooted inequalities reduces the divisiveness of identity politics and strengthens political stability. In this way marginalised women's lives can be improved and the root causes of a conflict addressed. This is fundamentally about the distribution of resources within a society in transition. Parties emerging from violent political conflict are unlikely to view this recommendation in a neutral light.
Engendering transitional justice: questions of absence and silence
- Eilish Rooney
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- Journal:
- International Journal of Law in Context / Volume 3 / Issue 2 / June 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 06 September 2007, pp. 173-187
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- Article
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The globalisation of transitional justice as a framework for the resolution of conflicts is a remarkable phenomenon of the post-Cold War era (Bell and Craig, 2000). In different contexts this framework has significant consequences for women’s equality. This article asserts that a conceptualisation of gender that intersects with other dimensions of inequality in state formation provides an important tool for understanding contemporary transitional justice processes. This complex tool of intersectional analysis is used to explore the issue of women’s equality in Northern Ireland’s transition. This is applied to the problems of women’s absence from negotiations and the silence in these negotiations on matters to do with women’s day-to-day lives. The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and the enactment of the equality legislation enacted in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 are the textual sites of analysis. These documents comprise the formal transitional framework for Northern Ireland. The article examines the theoretical tensions and practical implications inherent in universal claims for women’s equality in a situation where recognition of ‘difference’ is enshrined in both the equality legislation and the mechanisms for future democratic representation. The article concludes by suggesting that transitional justice discourse can benefit from the theoretical challenges posed by intersectionality and that social stability in NI and in other conflicted societies may be strengthened through addressing the corrosive impacts of inequality.