A Conversation with Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy, Professor Ron Dudai, Professor Kieran McEvoy and Ms Bhavani Fonseka

In this event, marking the launch of the latest book by QUB law lecturer and Institute Fellow Dr Nikhil Narayan, Guarantees of Non-Recurrence in Transitional Justice: Lessons from Sri Lanka (Routledge 2027), Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy, Professor Ron Dudai and Ms Bhavani Fonseka will be in conversation with Professor Kieran McEvoy to discuss the principle and practice of guarantees of non-recurrence as a central pillar of transitional justice, and the developments and prospects for peace, justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

The conversation will explore the challenges and opportunities for interpreting and applying guarantees of non-recurrence in contemporary post-conflict societies like Sri Lanka and beyond. The speakers will introduce emerging themes, developments and experiences of activism to make sense of the past, present and future of the transitional justice field, the duty to prevent recurrence of violence and atrocity, and the grand ambition of ‘Never Again’.

The discussion will be followed by a Q&A and will conclude with an informal reception (drinks and refreshments provided).

In his latest book, Guarantees of Non-Recurrence in Transitional Justice: Lessons from Sri Lanka (Routledge 2027), Institute Fellow and QUB law lecturer Dr Nikhil Narayan examines the core but under-scrutinised transitional justice pillar of guarantees of non-recurrence, from the perspective of a key but under-explored Global South context in Sri Lanka.

Transitional justice’s grand ambition is embodied in the slogan: ‘Never again’ – never again should societies endure the atrocities of war and mass violence. However, as conflicts proliferate in the 21st century, transitional justice has thus far failed to ensure states take the necessary steps to remedy their root causes – that is, those measures framed as guarantees of non-recurrence.

Through extensive fieldwork, the book critically interrogates the extent to which guarantees of non-recurrence can effectively advance socio-political transformation towards a more comprehensive justice. Embedded in interdisciplinary scholarship across transitional justice, human rights, peacebuilding, development, political economy and regional studies, the book argues for a re-prioritising of guarantees of non-recurrence within transitional justice and advances a novel approach based on applied political economy to achieve a more transformative version of guarantees of non-recurrence.

Purchase the book here (https://www.routledge.com/Guarantees-of-Non-Recurrence-in-Transitional-Justice-Lessons-from-Sri-Lanka/Narayan/p/book/9781041009870).

The event is co-hosted by the School of Law and Queen’s Institute for Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast.

Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy is an internationally recognized human rights scholar and lawyer. Since June 2022, she has served as a member of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. In 2017 she was appointed to the UN Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar and also as a member of the UN Secretary General’s Board of Advisors on Mediation. Before this, in Sri Lanka, Coomaraswamy was Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (1982-2005), Chairperson of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (2003-2006), and member of the Sri Lankan Constitutional Council (2015-2018). Internationally, she served as UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict from 2006 until her retirement in 2012. She was the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003), and led in 2014, at the request of the UN Secretary General, the review of the fifteen year implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Coomaraswamy has received numerous honorary degrees and honors, including the Deshamanya, Sri Lanka’s second-highest national honour. In 2013 she had the privilege of being invited to deliver the keynote Grotius Lecture of the American Association of International Law.

Professor Ron Dudai is a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and the Law School. Professor Dudai’s research is focused on the intersection of human rights, transitional justice and conflict-transformation. His monograph Penality in the Underground: The IRA’s Pursuit of Informers was published by Oxford University Press (2022), and his articles have been published in e.g. British Journal of Sociology, British Journal of Criminology, Political Studies, and International Journal of Transitional Justice. He is co-author of the recent major report Bitter Legacy: State Impunity in the Northern Ireland Conflict, a former co-editor of the Journal of Human Rights Practice, and a board member of several human rights organizations.

Bhavani Fonseka is a Senior Research Consultant and Attorney at Law at the

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