Lustration
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Lustration has two meanings, historical and modern.
Historically it was the term for various ancient Greek and Roman purification rituals.
In the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989–1991, the term came to refer to the policy of limiting the participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor governments or even in civil service positions.
Lustration refers to the purification, or cleansing a country will go through in order to deal with past human rights abuses or injustices that occured.[1]
Modern use
In the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989–1991, the term came to refer to the policy of limiting participation of former communists, and especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor governments or even in civil service positions. As of 1996 various lustration laws of varying scope were implemented in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia[citation needed] and Ukraine[citation needed]; it should be noted that regional differences were very significant (for example, in the Czech Republic and Germany the lustration was much stronger than in other countries). As of 1996 lustration laws did not exist in Belarus, nor in the former Soviet Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) (Ellis, 1996).
The main goal of lustration is to rid these countries of any past abuses that had occured under a former regime. This purification process is carried in many ways such as banning former memebers of the communist parties, or people involved, from being involved in public positions.[2]
Benefits
Lustration can serve as a form of instant revenge for those who were abused by a past government. Political figures are often banned from government immediatly and therefore serves as a more efficient form of justice. Whereas another method often used is court trials, however this can often take years, and may be unsuccessful. Legitimacy is a key factor in having effecient governance, and lustration laws serve as a new set of rules to be implemented in order to create an efficient new regime and governmental structures.[3]
Czech Republic
- "A Scorecard for Czech Lustration", from "Central Europe Review"
- Jiřina Šiklová, "Lustration or the Czech Way of Screening" in East European Constitutional Review, Vol.5, No.1, Winter l996 - Quarterly - Univ. of Chicago Law School and Central European University
Germany
- Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Germany's "struggle to come to terms with the past" after the Nazi era is a forerunner of, and in some ways similar to, the later problem of coming to terms with the legacy of East German communist rule.
Poland
See also
References
- 1904 (Merriam) Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language says: ""a sacrifice, or ceremony, by which cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by crimes, pestilence, or other cause of uncleanness, were purified""
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