Punishment for the past, or Liberation for the future?

Posted by Benjamin on: 07.27.2008 /

I was reading this fascinating if somewhat disheartening New York Times article by Helene Cooper entitled Waiting for Justice. Helene discusses a bit of a dilemma into which world leaders have bumped, on occasion. Some argue that public arrest warrants/indictments for national leaders, such as Charles Taylor in Liberia or Joseph Kony in Uganda, can serve to merely prolong the conflict by making reconciliation/peace-seeking a non-option for those who are indicted. She quotes Gary Bass, a Princeton University Politics and International Affairs professor:

“From a human rights perspective, what’s more important? Delivering justice for people who’ve been victimized, or preventing future victimization?”

If indeed a sort of dichotomy exists between justice-as-punishment and justice-as-liberation, then finding a balance between the two seems extraordinarily difficult, even, perhaps, in my own attitude toward myself, and ever so much more in international relations.