Foreign Aid to Transitional Justice: The Cases of Rwanda and Guatemala, 1995–2005*

Abstract

Although transitional justice (TJ) has been an area of significant donor engagement for more than a decade, little is known about the scope, trends, and experiences of that engagement. This study examines patterns and priorities of the aid that was given from 1995 through 2005 in support of transitional justice in Rwanda and Guatemala. It is based on statistical data from 15 donors and on interviews with 20 donor officials. The size of the TJ aid to the two countries in this period was modest, only accounting for about 5% of total development aid. While security sector reform received the bulk of the TJ assistance, the distribution of the remaining assistance was diverse. In Rwanda it targeted retributive justice processes including criminal courts and gacaca, while in Guatemala it focused on restorative justice institutions such as truth commissions and reparations. In Rwanda most of the TJ aid went directly to the government, and donor priorities by and large reflected government priorities. In Guatemala donor loyalties first and foremost lay with the peace accords, and donor commitment to certain TJ mechanisms was often not matched by a similar commitment on the part of the government. While Guatemala received more TJ support immediately after the end of the conflict, in Rwanda aid levels rose most prominently in the last half of the post-genocide period. While identifying trends such as these is a vital first step to fill the knowledge gap, further research is required to understand how transitional justice aid works across cases, over time and for different actors.