Dealing with the legacy of mass violence: changing lenses to restorative justice
Dealing with the legacy of mass violence: changing lenses to restorative justice

Summary/Abstract: Despite the continuing decline of the number of violent conflicts in recent years, the post-World War II period can be marked as one of the most violent periods in human history (Eriksson and Wallensteen 2004). Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of these conflicts did not occur between states but can be qualified instead as ‘intra-state’ conflicts involving gross and massive human rights violations. It is estimated that in the period 1946–1996, 232 armed conflicts have taken place (Balint 1996b), and since the fall of the Berlin wall (1989–2006), 122 conflicts have taken place, 89 of which were intra-state conflicts (Harbom & Wallensteen 2007). Estimating the number of persons killed, as well as the ones stripped of their fundamental rights, is virtually impossible, but several studies consider them to be in the tens of millions (Balint 1996b; Lacina & Gleditsch 2005).

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