‘No One Knows We’re Still Here’: Examining the Global Implications of Transitional Justice Mechanisms in American Indian Country
Professor Alison Watson and Research Fellow Bennett Collins at the Centre for Global Constitutionalism at the University of St Andrews are co-investigators of this on-going project that has been examining the implications of North America’s first truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs): the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC model became famous in South Africa as the country transitioned out of apartheid and into an inclusive democracy, revealing crimes and atrocities that went unheard of during the apartheid era to the South African public and the world. The two truth and reconciliation commissions in North America, which are examining the notorious Indian Residential School system and flawed Native child welfare policies, are pioneering new methods of restorative justice that may have the potential to drastically change the way countries address unresolved historical grievances.
Alison Watson is Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of three research monographs and co-editor of a further four edited collections. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles/book chapters including in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Third World Quarterly and Critical Studies on Security. She is currently working on issues surrounding truth and reconciliation and the economic rights and political representations of Indigenous Peoples in North-Eastern North America and in East Africa, specifically Ethiopia.
Bennett Collins is a Research Fellow with the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews. To date he has provided research for multiple international peacebuilding NGOs, including the International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, the UN Office of the Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect, and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies. He was the recipient of the Principal's Medal for Outstanding Endeavour and Achievement at the University of St Andrews and the African Studies Prize recipient for his Master’s thesis at the University of Oxford