(6) VETTING AND LUSTRATION Flashcards
What is vetting?
the screening of ppl in public institutions/where public trust to verify their integrty and capacity to fulfil their positions in support of new regime
vetting processes exclude from public institutions persons who
lack integrity
consequences of vetting:
- mandatory removal from position
- prevention from new positions
- encouragmenet to voluntarily resign
- face public disclosure
vetting =
assessing integrty to determine suitability for public employment
Vetting vs purges
purges target ppl for their membership/connection to group rather than individual responsibility
vetting processes should be prescribed and bound by?
legislative acts and due process requirements and then based on individual assessments
to be procedurally fair, vetting should provide
right to appeal decision
what institutions targeted by vetting?
can be broad/narrow but UN OHCR says should prioritise
* military
* intelligence services
* judiciary
* police
2 forms of screening for vetting
1) Replacement process - replace those who lack integrity
2) reappointment process - all individuals removed and need to reapply
can use a combo of both!
issues with vetting?
- availability and reliability of info
- financial limits
- capacity deficits - takes time to educate and give proper training to perform new functions!
- security risks
- political manipulation
- governance gap
critical to the success of vetting are what features
1) independent vetting committee
2) right to appeal decisions
Vetting in Iraq - overview of De-Baathification programme
- Policy undertaken by the new Iraqi gov to remove Baath party’s influence in new political system after US led invasion in 2003
- created by foreigners mainly w limited understanding of Baath party
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
1) Design a vetting programme not a purge
what was the lesson?
- Was a purge not vetting
- Program involved large scale politically based dismissals based on rank in civil service/Baath party but was ineffective and incoherent –> d
- no individual assessment on the basis of competence, participation in HR abuses etc
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
Consequence of purge whereby ppl weren’t judged individually
perpetrators weren’t also identified – widespread fear that they were at large
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
2) Know your target
What was the lesson?
- De-baathificaiton designed by foreigners! Only little data was used to actually desig the program – aimed at speed not quality
- US officials in Iraq adopted a broad, ambitious de-Baathifi cation policy without a detailed understanding of the Baath Party, the Iraqi military, public institutions, or civil service, or of actual Iraqi conditions and preferences
1) Design a vetting programme not a purge
What was a problematic assumption wrt purge in De-Baathification
- Key assumption nwas that any member of top four ranks was ideologically involved or committed sever violations of human rights
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
3) Set Clear, Realistic Objectives
- Expectations were unreaslitic – conflation of dif objectives – not about delivering justice to victims or getting punishments
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
3) Set Clear, Realistic Objectives
- Expectations were unreaslitic – conflation of dif objectives – not about delivering justice to victims or getting punishments
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
4) Don’t create a monster
- o Should be independent from politics
- o Program in Iraq used for political manipulation against political opponents
- o Lack of transparency meant couldn’t’ be seen as credible
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
5) Consult and educate
- Need to do this to obtain accurate info
- Greatest effectiveness when public opinmioms are incorporated
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
6) Look to the Future
- o De-Baathification looked backwards! So aimed at getting rid of people didn’t fully think through the consequences of a purge – there was no set of crtieria for future recruitment ot government service- many dismissed found their way back into public service – nothing to stop wave of fresh violators
- o Tightly focused vetting efforts can pave the way for reform
Lessons from De-Baathification programme
7) Observe basic standards of fairness
- Failure to have basic due process and observe HR standards – MUST RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW otherwise can undermine post-conflict reconstruction and TJ goals
- here lack of transparency of reporting of dismissals
- no appeals criteria defined
- even in judicial vetting, all former baath party members (not even senior ones) barred from participating
Standards of Fairness and Vetting
- like judicial process, those subject to vetting processes have rights too
- ie presumptiomn of innocent
- evaluation according to known and reasonable criteria
- right to appeal
- conducted efficiently
Lustration
- A form of vetting programs adopted in postcommunist countries of former Soviet Union
- broader than vetting due to symbolic/moral cleansing element
Institutional aspects of lustration
screening of officials with positions in public and semipublic institutions for employment purposes. The composition of the government is changed
Symbolic aspects of aspects of lustration
o revealing the past, truth telling, public revelations. It lustrates the past. Symbolic change/moral cleansing can indirectly lead to institutional change
Lustration- combination of institutional and symbolic measures eg
o Providing access to the files of the secret police.
o Compulsory public disclosures
Does lustration have a broader scope than vetting?
Yes, not just focused on security sector but wider range of public and quasi public and social institutions (eg, bakning, universities, churches, media)
Is there. aright of states to use lustration?
Yes - ECtHR recognised R to use lustration policies to uphold democracy - but should only be temporary in nature (Rekvenyi v Hungary)
lessons from de-baaathification
1) vetting not a purge
2) know your target
3) Set Clear, Realistic Objectives
4) Don’t create a monster
5) Consult and create
6) look to future
7) observe basic standards of fairness
what do lustration laws illustrate?
particular conditions for holding public office in the new democracy by persons associated w former regimes
lustration laws were designed to
deal with abuses of power by previous regimes and asa a means of rebuilding society after transition
Czechoslovakia lustration laws
disqualified high ranking communists, members of secret police + collaborators - no discretion/room for mitigating circumstances –> could only be downgraded to position not subject to lustration
Hungary lustration laws
‘naming the guilty’ method of public officials
* could be exposed and retain position or resign and not be exposed
Hungary lustration laws
‘naming the guilty’ method of public officials
* could be exposed and retain position or resign and not be exposed
Poland lustration laws
effectively offered tainted officials a 2nd chance in exchange for confession of past involvement in the former regime
dif btw Czech vs Polish and Hungary lustration methods
- Czech had an exclusive method vs latter daopted inclusive method to deal with officials
Main dif btw hungarian and polish inclusive methods of lustration
- Hungary: exposure conducted top-down and externally imposed on officials
- Poland: confession took bottum up approach and initiated by tained officials submitting affidavit
critique of lustraation laws based on dismissal
seen not as purification but as a continuation of past practices (same act just dif regime/new gov)
BUT this change and lustration through dismissal creates clear line btw past and present
lustration via exposure - critique
argue it perpetuates continutiyt w past bc of reliance on archives of old regime which may not be reliable
but also exposure fulfills truth function too + can help public to scrutinise officials w questoinable past, bridging gap btw the opporessed and elite
lustration via confession - benefit
bottom up approach means the truth is given reflecting change of heart and attitudes, fulfills normative meaning in this way - demonstrating change in loyalty etc
most effective form of lustration
dismissals found to have strongest +ve effect on trust in gov, pehraps due to its punitive aspect signalling achieving justice
which method of lustration is least effective
exposure least efficient
* wasn’t shown that exposure shows discontinuity with the past
effectiveness of confession as lustration method
significicantly increased trust in some cases - irrespective of political context –> shows the importance of an internal method of giving truth (normative and symbolic role demonstrating change of heart whereas exposure is externally driven)
