RECONCILIATION
Finally, where truth and justice have traditionally been the more comÂmon objectives of post-conflict institutions, reconciliation has recently become a focal theme. More regular considerations of reconciliation in transitional-justice debates, however, have rarely cultivated a clear understanding of what reconciliation is and how it may be achieved.
It is important therefore to define what â€?reconciliation’ means. In the broadest possible sense, reconciliation involves the rebuilding of fracÂtured individual and communal relationships after conflict, with a view towards encouraging meaningful interaction and cooperation between former antagonists. Reconciliation entails much more than peaceful coexistence, which requires only that parties no longer act violently towards one another. Non-violence may mean that the parties conÂcerned simply avoid each other, seeking separation rather than mended relationships. Reconciliation, however, requires the reshaping of parÂties’ relationships, to lay the foundation for future engagement between them. John Paul Lederach contends that a â€?relationship-centric’ interÂpretation of reconciliation holds that responses to conflict must peneÂtrate to the level of individual relationships.[98] â€?To enter reconciliation processes’, Lederach argues, â€?is to enter the domain of the internal world, the inner understandings, fears and hopes, perceptions and interÂpretations of the relationship itself.’[99] This internal dimension greatly affects reconciliation at the communal or national level, because these structures necessarily comprise individuals who have experienced vioÂlence. In this sense, reconciliation, when defined in terms of rebuilding individual relations, lays the foundation for rebuilding wider social relaÂtions after conflict.Reconciliation is both a process and an endpoint, requiring individÂuals and groups to interact and cooperate in often difficult circumstances, to discover solutions to their problems and thus to build stronger future relationships.
Reconciliation is both backward- and forward-looking, seeking to address the causes of past conflict in order to produce a more positive dynamic in the future. Any process of reconciliation must honÂestly and directly address the root causes of conflict, and the overwhelmÂing feelings of grievance and anger that may have compounded over generations and led to violence, if the parties concerned are to overcome serious divisions in the future.In defining reconciliation, it is also necessary to differentiate it from two terms with which is it often confused: peace and healing. First, recÂonciliation differs from peace or any of its related processes such as peaceÂkeeping or peacebuilding. Peace, as discussed above, should be viewed as a prerequisite of reconciliation. If violence continues, it is nearly imposÂsible for individuals and groups to consider rebuilding their relationships. The broader, systemic, society-wide peacebuilding aims of ending vioÂlence and safeguarding against future conflict therefore pave the way for reconciliation's deeper, inter-personal, relationship-focused processes.
Second, reconciliation differs from healing, which refers to the abilÂity of individuals and groups to overcome trauma, experienced during or after conflict. Authors such as Johan Galtung often conflate reconÂciliation and healing: for Galtung, reconciliation entails â€?the process of healing the traumas of both victims and perpetrators after violence, proÂviding a closure of the bad relation'.[100] Reconciliation, however, with its focus on rebuilding broken relationships, constitutes much more than overcoming trauma, although this - like peacebuilding - is often an important prerequisite of reconciliation. Many individuals and groups may not feel that they have suffered extreme trauma after conflict. Nonetheless, their relationships may be severely damaged, for a host of reasons other than trauma, and they may therefore seek some form of reconciliation. In other cases, traumatised individuals may need to overÂcome feelings of anguish, loss or hatred towards others before they can feel ready to reconcile with them.