Linkages between Justice-Sensitive Security Sector Reform and Displacement: Examples of Police and Justice Reform from Liberia and Kosovo

As with most post-conflict challenges, the issues of displaced populations and weak security institutions each have profound effects on the other. A common cause of displacement in post-conflict environments is a lack of physical security, either because formal security institutions fail to ensure it, or, in some cases, because those institutions themselves undermine it. Displaced individuals will not voluntarily return in great numbers if the same security threats that made them leave (or new ones) are present in their home areas. A first step towards addressing these effects would be to support justice-sensitive security sector reform, which emphasizes security sector transformation beyond effectiveness and capacity to include accountability, public service mentalities, democratic norms, and citizen ownership. This paper looks at examples drawn primarily from two post-conflict areas undergoing SSR—Liberia and Kosovo—to understand the possible synergies and tensions between durable solutions and security sector reform.