CR7: Transitional Justice
Structural violence is one of the many forms of violence, focusing on ways that societal roles and government are formed that inhibit individuals from their basic rights and human needs. These needs are basic human needs, and some structures within society do not permit individuals from many cultural groups to have access to them. Paul Farmer shares that Accompaniment can help society work together in the journey for change and equal footing. Accompaniment is not only to accompany someone but to be with the whole person. It is an openly used term but meant to focus on accompanying an individual or group wholistically.
The term Transitional justice was first coined in the early nineties to describe the transitions to democracy across Latin America as well as the falling of the Soviet Union. The creator of the term, Ruti Teitel, coined the term to be able to observe and learn how justices are constructed post oppression that is done consciously. The term can be used finally to think and work with post-conflict communities and how to proceed (2). Cultural Humility as discussed in-class uses past experiences and knowledge for a centered culture, to strive for possible further actions when working with post-conflict communities. It helps as well to demonstrate the power imbalances as well. Knowledge and awareness allow individuals to work alongside communities to strive towards a more level balance of power. In understanding the power dynamic amongst a community, one can see the places of improvement and what changes the community wants. When striving for change, it’s essential to work alongside the community to find their needs and wants. Working on a community without the knowledge of the community would possibly cause more issues amongst the people and their relationships.
When taking a look at the Sparh center, the population that uses their resources are spread out amongst many groups. Some of these groups are lgbtq+ communities, substance users, the homeless, and more. These groups have had a long history of oppression and structural violence. Though there have been many structural issues within the communities for a large span of time, there has yet to be significant improvement when discussing the series of oppression they have faced. Transitional justice would have to be examined post-conflict. Though these communities have not yet been freed from everyday oppressions, we can take a look at the ways communities act and react after an improvement. There has always been a focus on the homeless when striving for freedom and improvement, but I believe that we need to work closely with the actual community to see what they would like to see happen and work towards better communication and a team effort. The Sparh center works closely with its serving community to maintain open communication. When working there we have conversations with clients and work towards connections with them. The Sparh center works very hard to gain the trust of the community to work towards communication and improvement. Transitional justice may be a great help to lessen the oppression that the cultural groups face that are apart of the Sparh Center
