Towards a Counterculture of International Justice

Abstract Coloniality and Eurocentrism are entrenched in the field of international justice, reproducing a harmful dominant culture within international justice non-governmental organizations (‘IJ NGOs’) that influences how practitioners behave, interact with each other, and respond to violence and harm. The article argues that this dominant culture prioritizes punitive approaches to violence over more life-affirming forms of justice and accountability that centre healing and community. Drawing on experiences and conceptual frameworks illustrating dominant oppressive global systems and corresponding social behaviours, the authors critically examine the harms caused by the dominant culture that prevents authentic engagement with a community-led vision of systemic justice that seeks to transform the systems of oppression at the root of violence. Writing from the vantage point of their collective process of co-learning and reorientation and drawing on critical and feminist thought and praxes — including embodiment, abolition, and transformative justice — the authors offer potential ideas and practices that could contribute towards a counterculture in international justice. The article provides initial reflections on a practical framework that could reorient international justice communities of practice towards life-affirming and transformative approaches to justice that centre community-building, collective care, and solidarity.