BEYOND LAW: A CRITIQUE OF THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN THE TRUTH, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION’S PROCESSES USING MOMBASA, KENYA AS A CASE STUDY Annette Mudola Mbogoh DPhil Candidate (SEARCWL-UZ) Supervisors: Justice Dr. Amy Tsanga and Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Law, Southern and Eastern African |Regional Centre for Women’s Law, University of Zimbabwe, 2016 i ABSTRACT Truth commissions offer transitional countries emerging from conflict with an opportunity to re-tell, reflect, document and redress gross human rights injustices that were meted on victims by state actors paving way for reconciliation in post-conflict states. Like other public processes, they must be gender sensitive and inclusive for sustainable peace to be achieved. Therefore, participation, more so women‘s participation, in truth commission processes has been alegal requirement and an example of democratic exercise of citizenship. It is against this backdrop that the study herein is hinged. In Kenya, the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Framework that officially ended the 2007-2008 post-election violence provided for the establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The participation of women in the Kenyan TJRC was explicitly provided in its constitutive law. Nonetheless, this empirical research shows that the law is insufficient to guarantee women‘s full and active participation in the TJRC, or other truth commission, due to complexities arising from a gendered legal mandate, prohibitive normative systems, societal stereotypes and attitudes on the place of women in the public space and intersectionality of differences amongst women. The study analyses these themes by interrogating the contested concepts of participation, power, gender, representation and intersectionality. The research used qualitative research methodologies relying mainly on grounded theory, case study and ethnographical approaches. The study found that the extent and nature of women‘s participation was inadequate as spaces of participation aretranslatedinto spaces of power between women and men, state and non-state actors and amongst women themselves within a patriarchal society. The spaces of participation also become sites of contestations of the multi-layered identities of women, which then impacts on women‘s perceptions of their representation within truth commission processes. As a result, the accounts of women‘s experiences of violence are skewed and inapplicable to the TJRC‘s legal mandate. The study uses the experiences of women in Mombasa County, Kenya to illustrate these complexities whilst drawing on the practices of the South African and Peruvian predecessor truth commissions. The thesis ends by recommending raising the consciousness of women to build power within for active participation and the establishment of community based truth-telling processes that will create more women‘s friendly and safe spaces for their participation. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iii DECLARATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi DEDICATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------viii LIST OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS -------------------------------------------------- x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- xi LIST OF STATUTES AND NATIONAL POLICIES ------------------------------------------ xiv LIST OF CASES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------xv LIST OF TABLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xvi LIST OF DIAGRAMS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xvi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.1 Righting Wrongs: The Road Map to Achieving Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in Kenya 1 1.2 The Law on Women’s Participation in Peace Processes.------------------------------------------------- 3 1.2.1 International Declarations --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1.2.2 International Instruments ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 1.2.3 National Laws ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 1.3 Justification of the Study. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 1.3.1 Complexities of Gender Approaches in Truth-Telling Processes -------------------------------------------------- 8 1.3.2 Inadequacy of Legal Mandate of Truth Commissions ---------------------------------------------------------- 12 1.3.3 Spaces of Participation, Spaces of Power -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 1.4 Statement of the Problem. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 1.5 Main Goal and Objectives of the Research ------------------------------------------------------------- 16 1.6 Assumptions and Research Questions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 1.7 Conclusion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18 CHAPTER TWO: THE THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE STUDY -------19 2.0 INTRODUCTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 2.1 Theories of Power --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 2.1.1 The Forms of Power ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 2.1.2 The Dimensions of Power ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 2.1.3 The Spaces of Power ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 2.1.4 The Levels of Power ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 2.2 Feminist Legal Theory. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 2.2.1 The Power of Law -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 2.2.2 Using the Law to Spearhead Feminist Interest: A Mirage or a Reality? ----------------------------------- 32 2.2.2 A Feminist Analysis of the Concept of the State in Transitional Justice Contexts ----------------------- 35 2.3 The Intersectionality Theory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 iii 2.4 Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 CHAPTER THREE: BACKGROUND TO TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND TRUTH COMMISSIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------42 3.0 INTRODUCTION ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 3.1 Transitional Justice: Its Origin and Critiques ----------------------------------------------------------- 42 3.1.1 Defining “Transitional Justice” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 3.1.2 Choosing Transitional Justice Mechanisms for Post-Conflict States ------------------------------------------- 45 3.2 Feminist Critiques of Transitional Justice -------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 3.2.1 Theories of Justice Vis-À-Vis Transitional Justice ---------------------------------------------------------------- 49 3.2.2 A Feminist Analysis of the Law and the State. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 52 3.3 Truth Commissions as Transitional Justice Mechanisms ------------------------------------------- 55 3.3.1 Definition of a Truth Commission ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 57 3.4 The Relevance of Truth Telling Processes. -------------------------------------------------------------- 59 3.4.1 The Realisation of the Right to Truth ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 59 3.4.2 Establishing an Accurate Record of a Country’s Repressive Past -------------------------------------------- 61 3.4.3 Assessing the Impact of Truth Commissions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 63 3.5 Transitional Justice within the Kenyan Context. ------------------------------------------------------ 64 3.6 Truth Telling Processes in Kenya. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 66 3.6.1 Gender Considerations in the Work of the Task Force. -------------------------------------------------------- 67 3.6.2 The Realities of the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission ------------------------------ 69 3.6.2.1 Organisational Structure of the TJRC