Lustration mechanisms

Lustration is a word which originally meant all the methods of purification and expiation among the Greeks and Romans. Contemporarily, it means to ascertain whether an occupant or candidate for a particular public post worked or collaborated with the previous repressive regime and thus, is not morally qualified to the public office. The term lustration is often used interchangeably with the term vetting which, according to the United Nations, “entails a formal process for the identification and removal of individuals responsible for abuses, especially from police, prison services, the army and the judiciary”. (UN Doc. S/2004/616. The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies. Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, 23 August 2004, para. 52).

In this section, we offer information on whether EU countries have adopted this kind of measures to deal with their repressive pasts. By clicking on each country, details of the provisions will be displayed below the map.