After large-scale conflict or massive human rights violations, societies need to find ways to deal with legacies of violence and move towards more peaceful futures. Transitional justice  (TJ) has been developed as an overarching set of mechanisms to facilitate this.

In contexts like the Eastern Congo a variety of actors mobilizes elements of the TJ ‘toolkit’, even in the absence of a political transition and in a context of entrenched violence. This generated a complex ecosystem of co-existing, intersecting and crosscutting TJ initiatives – standardized & informal, local & international, judicial & non-judicial – that jointly aim to foster justice. 

This research sets out to examine the nature and dynamics of this complex TJ ecosystem, as well as how victims in Minova (DRC) interact with and navigate it. The project will shed light on how and why victims in a context of ongoing violence, create and navigate complex TJ ecologies to pursue justice & accountability.