"This essay argues that communications and narrative must occupy a much more central part of the vision of transitional justice, as in the early years of the field. In some cases, the opportunity is ample, because a clear and inclusive nation-building project is underway. Then, it is critical for tr ... ansitional justice institutions to latch their work onto the project, so that a critical mass of citizens may internalise that work as an organic aspect of the broader process of reshaping the society’s values and identity. If transitional justice is not part of such a nationbuilding project – because it never existed or was abandoned – narrative becomes even more important. In these cases, the primary goal of the transitional justice institutions’ communications strategy must be more in the nature of community building, in the literal and normative sense of the term. Such work implies identifying and if necessary forging coalitions of the groups and individuals who are most invested in a larger nation building and value transformation process. This constituency can include victims’ families, survivors, civil society and youth groups, ethnic and religious leaders, and all those in the media, academia and politics who have a broadly shared vision as to why the legacy of past abuse must be faced and never repeated." (Page 1) more

"Arriving at a collective memory of the past is one of the greatest challenges facing a post-conflict society because it implies reaching a degree of consensus in a polarized context. While truth commissions attempt to present an objective account of the events of a society’s repressive or violent ... past, they inevitably contend with multiple perspectives and interpretations of this history. In essence, truth commissions and other transitional justice mechanisms must mediate this confl ict to bring society to a shared version of this past, which arguably entails a society-wide admission that egregious human rights violations occurred and that victims must be acknowledged. However, for this end to result, transitional justice eff orts rely on the media to encourage consensus making about the past—a daunting but crucial undertaking if society is to escape sliding back into conflict. Ultimately, the media has the potential to bridge the gap between yesterday’s enemies by replacing fearmongering with a focus on empathy, by illustrating how much people have in common and championing victims’ rights to truth and justice. Especially in contexts where the media played a destructive role in the process of the dehumanization of “the other”, which usually laid the groundwork for massive human rights violations, it is precisely in this arena where the shift from denial to acknowledgement must happen. In addition to amplifying messages of acknowledgement coming from transitional justice processes, the media can produce and commission content which will feature voices of victims to humanize them again, and demonstrate that empathy for the other is not an act of betrayal of national or ethnic interests, as wartime ideologies almost always teach." (Conclusion, page 17-18) more