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Transitional justice, commonly defined as the process of confronting the legacies of past human rights abuses and atrocities, often does not produce the kinds of results that are imagined. In multiethnic, divided societies like Uganda, people who have not been directly affected by harm, atrocity, and abuse go about their daily lives without ever confronting what happened in the past. When victims and survivors raise their voices to ask for help, or when plans are announced to address that harm, it is this unaffected population that see such plans as pointless. They complain about what they perceive as the "needless" time and money that will be spent to fix something that they see as unimportant and, ultimately, block any restorative processes.Joanna R. Quinn spent twenty years working in Uganda and uses its particular case as a lens through which she examines the failure of deeply divided societies to acknowledge the past. She proposes that the needed remedy is the development of a very rudimentary understanding—what she calls "thin sympathy"—among individuals in each of the different factions and groups of the other's suffering prior to establishing any transitional justice process. Based on 440 extensive interviews with elites and other thought leaders in government, traditional institutions, faith groups, and NGOs, as well as with women and children throughout the country, Thin Sympathy argues that the acquisition of a basic understanding of what has taken place in the past will enable the development of a more durable transitional justice process.

Postwar reconstruction --- Restorative justice --- Sympathy --- Transitional justice --- Social aspects --- Lord's Resistance Army. --- Uganda --- Social conditions --- Human Rights. --- Law. --- Political Science. --- Public Policy.

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What if we could change the conditions in post-conflict/post-authoritarian countries to make transitional justice work better? This book argues that if the context in countries in need of transitional justice can be ameliorated before processes of transitional justice are established, they are more likely to meet with success. As the contributors reveal, this can be done in different ways. At the attitudinal level, changing the broader social ethos can improve the chances that societies will be more receptive to transitional justice. At the institutional level, the capacity of mechanisms and institutions can be strengthened to offer more support to transitional justice processes. Drawing on lessons learned in Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Gambia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Uganda, the book explores ways to better the conditions in post-conflict/post-authoritarian countries to improve the success of transitional justice. Samar El-Masri is Adjunct Professor at both the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at The University of Western Ontario and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada. Tammy Lambert is Researcher in Political Science and Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at The University of Western Ontario. Joanna R. Quinn is Director of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at The University of Western Ontario. This book emerges from the research program of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction at The University of Western Ontario.

Transitional justice. --- Justice --- Human rights --- International relations. --- Peace. --- Democracy. --- Social justice. --- Human rights. --- International Relations Theory. --- Peace Studies. --- Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights. --- Basic rights --- Civil rights (International law) --- Rights, Human --- Rights of man --- Human security --- Transitional justice --- Truth commissions --- Equality --- Self-government --- Political science --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- Coexistence, Peaceful --- Peaceful coexistence --- International relations --- Disarmament --- Peace-building --- Security, International --- Coexistence --- Foreign affairs --- Foreign policy --- Foreign relations --- Global governance --- Interdependence of nations --- International affairs --- World order --- National security --- Sovereignty --- World politics --- Law and legislation