Building Bridges through reconciliation: An investigation of traditional healing processes after mass violations of Human Rights

Contemporary warfare has brought about significant challenges to well established, state-centered war-ending mechanisms. While academics and practitioners recognize reconciliation as a groundbreaking and promising approach to long term protracted conflicts, the concept remains elusive. This research will reveal the conceptual difficulties in defining the process of reconciliation, before narrowing down its investigation to the inter-individual reconciliation carried out through traditional healing processes. Central to this paper is the argument that inter-individual reconciliation is fundamentally collaborative, forward looking, and empowers individuals. These three characteristics make the process more relevant and directly applicable to contemporary warfare. Using the case studies of Mato Oput in Northern Uganda and Gacaca in Rwanda, this study demonstrates how each aspect functions at the levels of those primarily affected by warfare, namely: survivors (victims and offenders), and their communities.