How an Ethno-Nationalism Can Thwart Transitional Justice

When reparations are offered to surviving victims, lustrations are conducted for perpetrators, and memorialization for murdered victims has happened, then positive steps in transitional justice have been affected. If all three of these activities were done to the fullest extent, some might suppose that it should produce a desired equilibrium of justice in the wake of genocide. Yet, an equilibrium of justice may still be a goal out of reach. A social equilibrium of justice brought about by transitional justice should allow society to rise above the renunciation of past offenses and the compensation for losses to recognize the dignity of all persons. In addition, residual social conflicts need to be laid to rest before they can fester and spread injustice. The amount of change required to move individuals and society into the desired state of justice will depend on the prevalence of residual social injustice. Residual injustice may take the form of biases like antisemitism harbored by individuals, or it may take the form of racist institutions. In this chapter we focus upon the systemic entrenchment of injustice that appears in some types of ethno-nationalism. This form of injustice embeds in society an assimilation-or-elimination mandate for foreign elements.