Calling for Transitional Justice: Planning the Future of Antimicrobial Resistance by Accounting for the Past

Abstract The transition toward addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses serious justice challenges. The just transition framework—originally developed within the U.S. labor movement to safeguard workers’ interests during shifts toward sustainable economies—has been proposed as a valuable framework for guiding the AMR transition. In the AMR context, similar conflicts of interests arise—such as those between farmers’ interest in maintaining routine antimicrobial use and the public interest in preserving their long-term effectiveness. This brief proposes enhancing the just transition framework by incorporating elements of Transitional Justice. Transitional justice has emerged as a practice aimed at addressing past political tragedies and building a more equitable future. While traditionally applied in post-conflict settings—such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa—transitional justice offers valuable tools for navigating conflicts rooted in past injustices and long-term uncertainty. One circumstance that makes transitional justice necessary in the context of AMR is the conflict between opposing views on the role the past should play in planning the transition. In this brief, we highlight key research gaps that the sciences, social sciences, and humanities should prioritize in order to better identify the conflicts and trade-offs that an AMR transition informed by a transitional justice framework must address.