At the start of 2014, more people were displaced globally by conflict and human rights violations than at any time since the Second World War. Although many of those displaced, from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Colombia, Kenya, and Sudan, have survived grave human rights abuses that demand redress, the links between forced migration, justice, and reconciliation have historically received little attention. This collection addresses the roles of various actors including governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and displaced persons themselves, raising complex questions about accountability for past injustices and how to support reconciliation in communities shaped by exile. Forced Migration, Reconciliation, and Justice draws on a variety of disciplinary perspectives including political science, law, anthropology, and social work. The chapters range from case studies in countries such as Bosnia, Cambodia, Lebanon, Turkey, East Timor, Kenya, and Canada, to macro-level analyses of trends, interconnections, and theoretical dilemmas. Furthermore, the authors explore the contribution of trials and truth commissions, as well as the role of religious practices, oral history, theatre, and social interactions in addressing justice and reconciliation issues in affected communities. In doing so, they provide fresh insight into emerging debates at the centre of forced migration and transitional justice. Exploring critical issues in political science and development studies, this provocative collaboration unites leading researchers, policymakers, human rights advocates, and aid workers to examine the theoretical and practical relationships between displacement, transitional justice, and reconciliation. Contributors include Ian B. Anderson (Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada), John Bell (Toledo International Center for Peace), Chaloka Beyani (London School of Economics), Mateja Celestina (Coventry University), Ayse Betül Çelik (Sabanci University), Mick Dumper (Exeter University), Roger Duthie (International Center for Transitional Justice), Huma Haider (University of Birmingham), Nancy Maroun (United Nations Development Programme Office in Lebanon), James Milner (Carleton University), Mike Molloy (University of Ottawa), Paige Morrow (Frank Bold), Lisa Ndejuru (Concordia University), Thien-Huong T. Ninh (California State University, Dominguez Hills), Anneke Smit (University of Windsor), Roberto Vidal López (Pontifica Universidad), Luiz Vieira (formerly with IOM), Nicole Waintraub (University of Ottawa), Jennifer Winstanley (lawyer).

Megan Bradley is assistant professor of political science and international development studies at McGill University.

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“This book tackles some of today’s most pressing political, social and legal problems that arise when people cross borders – between states, between perpetrator and victim communities, and between past and present. It recognises the centrality of refugees and IDPs as both subjects and agents of reconciliation and justice. In doing so, it covers a vast theoretical and empirical terrain while creating a crucial North-South dialogue, including passionate disagreement among some authors, on these complex issues.” Phil Clark, author of The Gacaca Courts and Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers