Main points
- Transitional justice can be an opportunity to address corruption committed during past periods of war and dictatorship, such as through truth commissions and war crimes tribunals
- On their own, these justice mechanisms are not sufficient for tackling corruption, nor do they deliver economic justice to victims, such as through asset recovery or reparations.
- Addressing corruption through transitional justice can acknowledge and reveal past corruption, providing a foundation for social renewal.
- Tunisia, Egypt, Sierra Leone, and Liberia shed light on why countries choose to address past corruption through transitional justice: the desire to achieve some accountability for past wrongs and to build a new social consensus and norms for the future.
- There is a strong risk of politicisation and weaponisation of post-transitional justice when implementing war crimes trials to address past corruption.
