Closing Remarks

The conference addresses a seemingly specialized topic. Nevertheless, if we define victim participation as encompassing all practices established by those who have experienced harm in their pursuit of justice, the field and its scope become extensive. During the closing remarks, Gretel Mejía Bonifazi will engage in a discussion with Dr. Louis Bickford, exploring key questions pertaining to this diversity.

How do we maintain a unified understanding of these diverse practices under a single umbrella, and is ‘transitional justice’ still the best umbrella terms given how broadly the term is nowadays invoked? Should we move toward a different concept, a different conceptualization of its modalities, and if so, what then should that be?

If we hold on to the current terminology and architecture, how do innovations (often driven by victim groups) change how we understand that the practice of transitional justice? And how do we navigate the tensions created by those groups ascribing a very ambitious set of objectives to transitional justice and the institutions of transitional justice which may be more conservative in their ambitions?