Elin Skaar
Current projects
Truth Commissions and Sexual Violence: African and Latin American Experiences
Expectations, Truth and Reconciliation in a Democratic Welfare State (TRUCOM)
Women on the Bench: The Role of Female Judges in Fragile States
Completed projects
Beyond Words: Latin American Truth Commissions' Recommendations
After Violence: Transitional Justice, Peace, and Democracy
Reconceptualising Transitional Justice: The Latin American Experience
Transitional Justice, Violence and Reconciliation
Accountability functions of courts
Courts in transition
The political role of courts in South Africa
Aid to judicial reform
Good governance in Angola: The role of the courts
Democratization and the Judiciary
Evaluation of Ireland Aid's human rights and democratisation scheme
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Journal Articles
Books and Anthologies
CMI Reports
CMI Working Papers
Other Publications
Conference Papers/ Presentations
Newspaper Articles
Radio and TV appearances
Political scientist exploring intersections between law and politics in Latin America and Africa
Elin Skaar is Research Professor at CMI. Her research focuses mainly on countries that through processes of democratization deal with human rights violations, transitional justice, strengthening and reforming their courts, and development issues more generally. Main empirical focus: Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) and Southern Africa (Angola, Mozambique).
Skaar has worked on human rights and transitional justice issues since the early 1990s. She leads CMI's research on Transitional Justice, which focuses on both the drivers and impact of transitional justice processes. She has directed several international research projects on this topic, including "Drivers of Justice", "Reconceptualising Justice: The Latin American Experience" and "Beyond Words: Implementing Latin American Truth Commission Recommendations."
Skaar is currently part of the core team investigating the work of the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and heads a project on Truth Commissions and Conflict Related Sexual Violence focusing on African and Latin American experiences.
Skaar has been Research Director of the “Rights, Democracy and Development” programme (2007-2009); coordinator for the cluster on “Rights and Legal Institutions” (2009-17); and head of the research group on “Rights and Gender” (2017- 2019). She is part of the steering committee at the Center for Law and Social Transformation, where she also coordinates the unit on Courts, Judicial Behaviour & Transitional Justice. She is a former member of the Board of Chr. Michelsen Institute (2017-21) and former member of the Board of Directors at the Centre for applied research at the Norwegian School of Economics, Norway (2007 – 2015).
Skaar has done programme work for the UNDP and served as a consultant for NORAD, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ireland Aid, and Nordic Consulting Group A/S.
Skaar has published extensively on courts and transitional justice issues. Her most recent publications inlcude two volumes on truth commissions in Latin America, both with Intersentia (Cambridge):
Exploring Truth Commission Recommendations in a Comparative Perspective: Beyond Words Vol. I (co-written with Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm and Jemima García-Godos).
Latin American Experiences with Truth Commission Recommendations: Beyond Words Vol. II (co-edited with Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm and Jemima García-Godos).