Transitional Justice is the set of tools or protocols that must be implemented in societies from the State onwards, so that there is consensus and awareness of the democratic stance both in relations between the State and Society and in social relations themselves. The goal is to reach a level of trust and solidarity that makes national reconciliation and healing of any wounds resulting from the traumas of a period of exception and/or armed conflict. The mechanisms, or dimensions, or axes, or pillars, or tools, or protocols of transitional justice are four: 1) the binomial of memory and truth; 2) integral reparation; 3) reform of institutions; and 4) accountability or justice, and that can also be made explicit in the expression prosecution of human rights violators. There is no hierarchy among these mechanisms, and they are interdependent on each other. It is important to emphasize that if any of them are not implemented, the goal of national reconciliation is unlikely to occur.
The research group researches the Brazilian case, which has political amnesty as its main thread, from the Amnesty Law (Law 6.683/79) to the laws that created the three State Commissions to deal with the legacy of authoritarianism (Law 9.140/95, which created the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances; Law 10.559/02, which created the Amnesty Commission; Law 12.528/11, which created the National Truth Commission).
The Research Group produces interdisciplinary knowledge on the subject and makes it available to all people who wish to debate the subject, with the goal of building a solid Democratic State of Law in Brazil, which, we believe, will only be possible after we conclude the transitional process commanded by the 1988 Constitution.