Editorial Note

This is my first venture in helping to edit a journal, whichis a new area for me since my experience is mainly in the areaof judicial adjudication. I agreed to become involved not onlybecause the theme of this issue, namely, ‘Gender and TransitionalJustice’ is of particular relevance to international justicetoday, but also because the advent of the International CriminalCourt (ICC) has opened up new possibilities for the ventilationof alternative aspects of justice for victimised communitiesand experts working in the field. Over the course of the last13 years, as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunalfor Rwanda (ICTR) and now the ICC, I learned to listen to differentvoices, both within     

Editorial Note

Scholarly interest in the field of transitional justice is growingrapidly. At the March 2008 meeting of the International StudiesAssociation, a world-wide organization of some 4,000 membersfounded to promote research and education in international affairs,there were multiple panels on transitional justice with topicsthat ranged from evaluations of transitional justice mechanismsto the impact of the International Criminal Court, and fromculture and transitional justice to its psychological impact– and these were only in the sessions that were devotedspecifically to the field. Other sessions addressed preventionof genocide, conflict resolution and international law –all of which can be examined through the lens of transitionaljustice as well. As we have noted in earlier editorials, thechallenges and limitations of the field are discussed at meetingsof political