Gender and transitional justice

More than two decades after the ground-breaking jurisprudence of the ICTY and ICTR, the need for gender-sensitive approaches is now squarely on the transitional justice agenda, resulting especially in attention to sexual violence as a gendered crime. This chapter discusses the main historical and conceptual debates within the field of gender-sensitive transitional justice. It discusses how transitional justice mechanisms have tried to deal with these specific gendered experiences, giving examples from different truth, justice and reparation processes. The chapter concludes by discussing some of the main critiques of gender-sensitive transitional justice and outlining possible strategies to overcome these. The approach identified in the Victims' Law reflects a tendency within 'gendered' analyses of transitional justice to understand gender as women, leading to the inclusion of women and their specific experiences during conflict. Progress has been made in addressing gender in transitional justice.