Transitional justice refers to efforts by newly formed democratic governments to hold the previous authoritarian regime accountable for past human rights abuses. Only two states in Asia and Latin America, South Korea and Argentina, chose to conduct formal trials to hold former military leaders accountable, and each had different results.

The 1970s ushered in a period when many countries made the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. The authoritarian governments were military juntas, dictatorships, and communist regimes; they included Portugal, Greece, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, the former Soviet states, and South Africa. In most instances in Asia and Latin America, these regimes were military governments and responsible for gross violations of human rights, including torture, rape, kidnapping, and murder. Once the military relinquished ...