“Justice Futures”: Forensic Investigation and the Potential for Transformation in Eritrea

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Tricia Redeker Hepner
Daniel Rezene Mekonnen

Abstract

This article addresses the role of the dead and disappeared and the potential for forensic investigation of atrocities in the context of an evolving transitional justice debate and framework for Eritrea. As one possible component of transitional justice, forensic investigation represents an especially potent modality to document the physical evidence of atrocities, help establish truth and accountability, and catalyse deeper conversations about justice, reconciliation, repair, access to resources, and socio-political transformation. This discussion is especially relevant as human rights proponents continue to debate the implications of findings by the Human Rights Council that Eritrean authorities have committed or enabled crimes against humanity and whether these should culminate in a referral to the International Criminal Court.

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How to Cite
Redeker Hepner, T. ., & Mekonnen, D. R. (2022). “Justice Futures”: Forensic Investigation and the Potential for Transformation in Eritrea. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 10(1), 117–144. https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v10i1.414
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Articles
Author Biographies

Tricia Redeker Hepner, Arizona State University, United States of America

She is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University, Glendale, USA. Her research on Eritrea, Eritrean diasporas, and Northern Uganda focuses on migration and displacement, transnationalism, human rights, transitional justice, militarism, and conflict and peace. She conducted research in the Horn of Africa and has published four university-press books and more than twenty peer-reviewed journal articles or chapters. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the US Fulbright Scholars Program.

Daniel Rezene Mekonnen, Independent Consultant, Switzerland

He is a Geneva-based Independent Consultant of International Human Rights Law, and a Non-Resident Fellow of the African Studies Centre Leiden. Formerly, and among other things, he was a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) in Norway. Currently, he also serves as a Member of the International Team of Legal Advisors for Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), a project supported by UNESCO’s Global Media Defence Fund.