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The study “public policies against violence” offers a reflection on the public policies set up to fight against violence.

By questioning the possibility of implementing a policy aimed at ending violence, this panel of researchers attempts a critical analysis of the conditions that would allow a lasting peace and the limits that remain.

Through a sociological approach, the study demonstrates the social character of these policies and presents transitional justice as a means of organising the different forms of public policies against violence.

Transitional justice, which tends to criminalise political violence, appears to be a way to focus on victims whose status must be recognised through various measures, be they material, symbolic or public.

However, the study emphasises that post-conflict policies are now similar to ordinary public policies (housing, social benefits, etc.), the latter can be considered to have direct effects on political violence, unlike transitional justice, which does not always lead to positive consequences in terms of human rights protection.

The panel of researchers also emphasises the need for a relational approach in the study of international conflict resolution policies (to show the interaction between local actors and international actors) and the importance of careful observation and description of conflicts at the local and international level in order to offer international action programmes that are not based on erroneous descriptions of conflicts.

The example given in this chapter is that of the ‘new wars’ paradigm, which is considered to be questionable or even erroneous and yet widely used in the field of international relations.