Thesis

Problematising the construction of women in transitional justice : an analysis of the relationship between women’s participation and their portrayal in the reports of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2024
Thesis identifier
  • T17018
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201955891
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • This thesis problematises women’s participation in transitional justice processes by analysing the relationship between women’s participation in these processes, and the ways in which women are discursively constructed in transitional justice contexts. This thesis thus responds to research to date in the transitional justice field which has proposed that women’s participation in transitional justice processes is inadequate, while processes are gendered to disadvantage women. In doing so, the thesis asks: “what relationship exists between women’s portrayal in transitional justice processes and the modes of participation available to them in law?” To answer this question, the thesis adopts a methodology referred to as “critical spatial discourse analysis”. By using legal geographical concepts to understand how legal discourses constitute women in the transitional justice context, this thesis makes a unique contribution to the transitional justice field. Applying this method to the reporting of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as its case study, the thesis argues that the discursive practices which emerge through the TRC’s reports established a conceptual, discursive space, with that space constituting women as participants in the TRC. It proposes that this discursive space produced “flattened” portrayals of women which emphasised their victimhood, their vulnerability, and their passivity, while reducing them to their gender. The thesis proposes that this “constitutivity” of women is rooted in the TRC’s “documentary heritage”. It argues that the TRC’s mandate and international legal standards on participation provide limited opportunities for women to participate in transitional justice processes, which in turn produce a limited construction of the woman subject of transitional justice. In this way, the thesis argues that a mutually constituting and reinforcing relationship exists between women’s portrayal in transitional justice processes and the modes of participation available to them in law. As such, the thesis reveals law’s role in perpetuating women’s participation “problem”.
Advisor / supervisor
  • O'Donnell, Thérèse
Resource Type
DOI

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file details PDF of thesis T17018 2024-07-17 Public Download