Lessons from Transitional Justice? Toward a New Framing of a Victim-Centered Approach in the Case of Historical Institutional Abuse

ABSTRACT

The article critically examines transitional justice mechanisms to determine if historical abuse inquiries can learn from this field of practice. The article explores the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry which reported its findings in January 2017 as a vehicle for addressing what lessons might be learned or shared between the fields of transitional justice and investigations into historical abuse. Through a detailed analysis of empirical research with those that gave testimony to the Inquiry, including fourthly-three victims and Inquiry transcripts, the article explores to what extent the Inquiry was victim-centered, enabled victim participation (beyond giving testimony) and addressed victim needs. The article shows that many of the flaws of transitional justice mechanisms have been replicated when dealing with historical child abuse. Drawing on lessons from transitional justice – both positive and negative – the article outlines five broad areas for consideration that could strengthen the victim-centered nature of approaches to dealing with the legacy of historical child abuse. The article concludes that addressing victims’ needs should be at the center and drive approaches and processes for both transitional justice and historical institutional abuse.

KEYWORDS:

• historical institutional abuse
• child abuse
• transitional justice
• inquiries
• justice
• Northern Ireland
• victims
• victim participation
• needs
• human rights violations

Acknowledgments

Professor Lundy wishes to acknowledge and thank the Leverhulme Trust for a Major Research Fellowship Grant (MRF-2015-124) which enabled the empirical research to be conducted.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term victim is used in this article as it is the recognized legal term for those who have suffered violations in the past at the hands of others, and most recognizable by the wider public. That said, it is acknowledged that using the term victim can suggest limited agency or resilience, albeit not the intention of the authors. The use of the term victim by the authors does not preclude self-identification to other categorizations such as survivor or none.

2. The breakdown of male/female is not given in the HIAI Report.

3. The HIAI investigations covered eleven voluntary homes run by Roman Catholic Religious Orders or other bodies such as Barnardo’s, six Training Schools and other juvenile justice sector institutions; and five state-run residential institutions. As well as the 22 institutions examined in the Public Hearings, the Inquiry also investigated abuse by Father Brendan Smyth of the Norbertine Order, and the operation of the Child Migrant Scheme (see Hart, 2017).

4. The interviews were part of a wider study that included focus groups and analysis of Inquiry transcripts; and interviews with former child migrants in Australia.

5. The three main victims’ groups are Survivors and Victims of Abuse (SAVIA), Survivors North West (SNW) and Rosetta Trust.

6. The figure of 27,738 children comes from a PowerPoint presentation by The Executive Office (EO) 30th January 2018, copy on file with authors. The figure 27,738 was compiled from the HIAI website.

7. This individual was interviewed and subsequently sent a letter with further details.

8. Letter to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from Northern Ireland political parties agreeing to changes to HIA draft redress legislation, copy of letter on file with authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (Major Research Fellowship Grant) [MRF-2015-124].