Transitional justice and mental health : The Kosovo case

Abstract

While the relationship between war and mental health has long been the subject of research, the role of post-war mechanisms such as dealing with the past, better understood as transitional justice, is less well understood at the psychological and social level. The main pillars of transitional justice are legal procedures, truth-finding measures, reparation processes and reforms. Each of these pillars contain psychosocial elements that can have an impact on the psychological well-being of those affected. One of the main objectives of this thesis is therefore to identify the influencing factors and to develop a novel interdisciplinary theoretical framework of how transitional justice mechanisms are related to and positively influence the mental well-being of a post-conflict society. This will be exemplified with actions that go beyond legislation, such as public recognition, national apologies in education, and the establishment of memorials and museums. However, psychometric tools to verify the positive effects of these pillars of transitional justice are still missing. In developing this novel interdisciplinary theoretical framework, this work will identify concepts by focusing on postwar dynamics from different perspectives. It has been shown that in different cases, that a process of coming to terms with the past can accompany a society for decades. Furthermore, the present thesis aims at exemplifying the possibilities of application of the newly developed theoretical framework with the case of Kosovo.