Seeking justice from afar: Diasporas and transitional justice

Background and research aims

Societies that have gone through genocide and war face considerable challenges related to justice, memorialization, and reconciliation. This project has drawn attention to and analyzed the fact that such processes - of transitional justice (TJ) - also take place outside of the country where the mass-atrocities occurred. Victims, perpetrators, and activists have, through migration, been spread around the globe. This means that the concerns and contestations that arise in TJ processes also play out in the diaspora. Earlier research has shown how migrants can influence developments in their former home countries. However, less has been known about the role of diasporas in seeking justice, memorialization, and reconciliation after large-scale violence. Hence, the aim of the project has been to study how individuals and groups in the diaspora engage with transitional justice processes in two cases: Rwanda and Sri Lanka. The project has looked at how diaspora actors initiate, participate in, and influence TJ processes as well as on how their TJ engagement shape diaspora identities.

Publications

• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Diaspora memory conflicts: Struggles over genocide commemoration, recognition and denial’, Ethnopolitics, 2023.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Navigating labels, seeking recognition for victimhood: Diaspora activism after mass-atrocities’, Global Networks, 2021.  
• Arielle Goldschläger & Camilla Orjuela, ‘Return after 500 years? Spanish and Portuguese reparation laws and the reconstruction of Sephardic identity’, Diaspora Studies, 2021.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Passing on the torch of memory: Transitional justice and the transfer of diaspora identity across generations’, International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2020.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Remembering genocide in the diaspora: Space and materiality in the commemoration of atrocities in Rwanda and Sri Lanka’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2020.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Mobilizing diasporas for justice. Opportunity structures and the presencing of a violent past’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2018.
• Camilla Orjuela, “Sri Lanka”, in Lavinia Stan and Nadya Nedelsky (eds.), Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice, Second edition, 2023.
• Dzeneta Karabegovic & Camilla Orjuela, ‘Seeking justice from abroad: Diasporas and Transitional Justice’ in Liam Kennedy (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Diplomacy, 2021.
• Dzeneta Karabegovic & Camilla Orjuela, ‘Diasporas in peace and conflict’, in Oliver Richmond and Gezim Visoka (eds.), Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies, 2021.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Seeking justice from afar: the Tamil diaspora and transitional justice’, conference proceedings from the Conference on Tamil Nationhood and Genocide, Ottawa 5-6 May 2018.
• Kristine Höglund & Camilla Orjuela, ‘Friction over Justice in Post-War Sri Lanka: Actors in Local-Global Encounters’, in Annika Björkdahl, Kristine Höglund, Gearold Millar, Jair van der Lljin, Willemijn Verkoren (eds.), Frictional Encounters in Peacebuilding. Routledge, 2016.  
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Unga tamiler i diasporan engagerar sig för rättvisa i Sri Lanka’, Sydasien, 2020.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Minnena av våldet kan både ena och söndra Sri Lanka’, Utrikesmagasinet, 2019.
• Camilla Orjuela, ‘Försoningsprocesser blir globala i migrationens spår’, Utrikesmagasinet, 2018.
• Astrid Norén-Nilsson & Camilla Orjuela, ’Kambodja och Sri Lanka: Hoten mot demokratin’, Världspolitikens Dagsfrågor 7-8, 2018.