Advancing the Criminal Justice Pillar of Transitional Justice in Challenging Contexts: Preconditions for successful criminal justice

A distinctive characteristic of transitional justice is to seek mutually reinforcing advances across each of its dimensions: truth, justice,
reparations and guarantees of non-repetition, considering which course(s) of action can contribute to the greatest forward movement overall, while
avoiding possible backsliding. This interdependence means that justice cannot be treated as an agenda to be pursued separately from truth, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, which may influence how justice decisions need to be defined, viewed and implemented.
This document, which was prepared on request to inform considerations for review of the UN Secretary General's Guidance Note on TJ, focuses on preconditions and initial
considerations regarding criminal justice in domestic accountability spaces. The
paper contends that narrow “norm transfer” approaches are unlikely to succeed, with detailed country diagnostics needed to craft workable, locally grounded appreciations of how the best interests of justice can be served in a particular setting at a given time