Mass Violence, Environmental Harm and the Limits of Transitional Justice

Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention, Special Issue on Environmental Degradation, Climate Change and Mass Atrocities, Forthcoming Spring 2022.

35 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2021 Last revised: 23 Nov 2021

See all articles by Rachel Killean

Rachel Killean

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Law; Queen's University Belfast School of Law

Lauren Dempster

Queen's University Belfast

Date Written: September 23, 2021

Abstract

The relationship between the environment and mass violence is complex and multi-faceted. The effects of environmental degradation can destabilise societies and cause conflict; attacks on the environment can harm targeted groups; and both mass violence and subsequent transitions can have harmful environmental legacies. Given this backdrop it is notable that the field of transitional justice has paid relatively little attention to the intersections between mass violence and environmental degradation. This presentation interrogates this inattention and explores the limitations and possibilities of transitional justice as a means of addressing the environmental harms associated with mass violence. We make four key claims. First, that the ‘dominance of legalism’ in transitional justice has produced anthropocentric understandings of harm which exclude environmental harms and victims. Second, that transitional justice’s tendency towards neo-colonialism has led to the disregarding of worldviews that might encourage more environmentally inclusive responses to violence. Third, that transitional justice’s inability to redress structural inequalities has often left environmental injustices intact. And fourth, that the field’s complicity in normalising neoliberal capitalism both overlooks environmental harm and facilitates future environmental degradation. In light of these claims, we consider whether and where opportunities might exist for ‘greener’ responses to mass violence.

Keywords: Genocide; Mass Atrocity; Environmental Degradation; Transitional Justice

Suggested Citation

Killean, Rachel and Dempster, Lauren, Mass Violence, Environmental Harm and the Limits of Transitional Justice (September 23, 2021). Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention, Special Issue on Environmental Degradation, Climate Change and Mass Atrocities, Forthcoming Spring 2022., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3929361 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3929361

Rachel Killean (Contact Author)

The University of Sydney - Faculty of Law ( email )

New Law Building, F10
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia

Queen's University Belfast School of Law ( email )

School of Law
Belfast BT7 1NN, BT7 1NN
Ireland

Lauren Dempster

Queen's University Belfast ( email )

25 University Square
Belfast, BT7 1NN
Ireland

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