This study examines the dynamics of transitional justice in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the Chilean experience and its potential relevance for Yemen. The first section situates the Yemeni conflict by outlining the scope of violations and identifying the underlying reasons behind the repeated failure of previous political settlements to address root causes or provide effective redress for victims. It highlights Yemen’s urgent need for transitional justice as a means of addressing complex legacies of conflict, ensuring truth-seeking, securing victims’ rights, and safeguarding national memory, while also analyzing the challenges that may hinder its implementation.

The second section turns to Chile, tracing the evolution of its transitional justice process and examining the mechanisms through which civil society and the Church played a central role in documenting and archiving evidence. These mechanisms proved critical in advancing truth, accountability, and reparations, while memory initiatives, such as transforming former repression sites into spaces of remembrance, contributed to the construction of a collective national memory.

The third section considers the prospects of drawing lessons from Chile for Yemen. It emphasizes the central role of Yemeni civil society in advancing systematic documentation of violations as a foundational step toward truth-seeking and accountability, thereby laying the groundwork for transitional justice and sustainable peace in the postwar context. It further assesses the applicability of Chile’s models of reparations and memory work to the Yemeni context, taking into account the specificities of the country’s social and political landscape, and highlights both parallels and divergences between the two cases. The study concludes by reflecting on the role of national reconciliation in Yemen as the ultimate objective of transitional justice.