Transitional Justice "from below": a critical constructivist theoretical framework to analyze the Colombian case

This article attempts to set forth a dialogue with international literature on transitional justice. It also aims at proposing a critical theoretical framework that makes possible to analyze the topic as a discursive construction related to social and historical contexts. In doing so, in the first part of the article I sustain that transitional justice is a relatively recent construction in the international political and academic landscape. However, it has experienced different stages and transformations. In the second part, the article proposes a theoretical framework that makes possible to think about the construction of democratic meanings about transitional justice and victims' rights in the complex case of Colombia. In this regard, I draw on Pierre Bourdieu's perspective of social fields (1992) to argue that transitional justice is a battle field among social agents that rely on diverse level of resources and power. I also draw on critical perspectives on human rights and transitional justice to highlight the relevance of social subjects, such as social movements and human rights networks, in the construction of transitional justice "from below".