South African apartheid might have ended in bloodshed without Nelson Mandela and his ethos of forgiveness. But, did apartheid’s victims get real justice, or was "Reconciliation" valued over "Truth"? If you want peace, should you forget justice? That's the topic at this provocative IQ-Squared debate from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House.
The discussion ranges across some of the thorniest issues and most intractable conflicts throughout the world –- Ireland, Timor, Cyprus, the Middle East. A high-level panel including Ratih Hardjono, Eric Kaufmann, Agio Pereira and Stuart Rees thrash out what peace and justice can mean in the 21st century ... and which of the two we should strive to achieve.
This special IQ2 debate is part of the 2010 Festival of Dangerous Ideas, presented by the Sydney Opera House and St James Ethics Centre.
Bio
Graham Blewitt
Graham Blewitt was the deputy chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for 10 years during which he was instrumental in the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic. Prior to that he was the Director of the Nazi war crimes unit in Australia, where he oversaw the indictment of three Nazi war criminals.
Andrea Durbach
Andrea Durbach was born and educated in South Africa where she practised as a political trial lawyer and human rights advocate. She moved to Sydney in 1989 and is now the Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at the University of New South Wales.
Ratih Hardjono
Ratih Hardjono was for many years an international correspondent for Kompas, Indonesia's leading daily, where she reported on the breakup of the Soviet Union in central Asia, the transition process and 'Truth and Reconciliation' in South Africa and ethnic cleansing in Burundi and in Bosnia.
Eric Kaufmann
Eric Kaufmann is a writer, researcher and teacher of politics and sociology at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century, The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History and The Rise and Fall of Anglo America.
Simon Longstaff
Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre. Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York.
Agio Pereira
Agio Pereira is Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers of Timor L'Este. He also serves as Official Spokesman for Xanana Gusmao's government. Agio moved to Australia from Portugal where he was studying when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975.
Stuart Rees
Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees AM, BA (Hons). Dip Soc Stud. Cert. Social Casework., PhD., Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney.
He was previously (1978-2000) Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. He has worked in community development, probation services and social work in Britain, in Canada, in the War on Poverty programs in the USA and with Save the Children in India and Sri Lanka. He has taught at leading universities in the UK (Aberdeen and Southampton), in Canada (Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier), and in the USA (University of California at Berkeley, University of Texas at Austin).
His publications include over one hundred articles in professional journals on topics such as evaluations of health and welfare services, the attributes of peace negotiations and humanitarianism in social policy. He is the author and co-author of ten books, including Verdicts on Social Work (1982), A Brutal Game (1986), Achieving Power (1991), Beyond the Market (1993), The Human Costs of Managerialism (1995), Human Rights, Corporate Responsibility (2000), Passion for Peace (2003), and the poetry anthology Tell Me The Truth About War (2004).
In philosophy, the concept of a proper proportion between a person's deserts (what is merited) and the good and bad things that befall or are allotted to him or her. Aristotle's discussion of the virtue of justice has been the starting point for almost all Western accounts. For him, the key element of justice is treating like cases alike, an idea that has set later thinkers the task of working out which similarities (need, desert, talent) are relevant. Aristotle distinguishes between justice in the distribution of wealth or other goods (distributive justice) and justice in reparation, as, for example, in punishing someone for a wrong he has done (retributive justice). The notion of justice is also essential in that of the just state, a central concept in political philosophy. See alsolaw.
Peace alone is a form of justice, soft power is what we call it today. Peace to be left alone to live is also a form of Justice. Although beware Justice most times falls into JUST US, I noticed no one used the term BLIND JUSTICE! or is Justice truly Blind or just turned it´s back on Peace and justice! Thank You excellent! IN THE USA IT IS CALLED (THE OCCUPATION);
HE IS THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE!
Both sides have grand, logical arguments and each are worthy of deep consideration. Stopping blood shed is the up most importance,but is that actually Peace? I think in a long term, justice up holds peace and retribution and vengeance is less likely to be confused with Justice.
One must beware that justice isn't metered out by the corrupt....The U.S. in Iraq or Afghanistan is a good example of who is the justified! Certainly not the invaders in these instances. Justice must be held to a world stage not exploiters or nation builders!
Peace first, but justice can not be forgotten.
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