Through data collected during fieldwork in Algeria and Turkey, I study how people understand justice for mass human rights violations. I focus on domestic human rights actors and relatives of victims of enforced disappearances. I examine whether and how the changes that have occurred in international politics - which emphasize individual criminal responsibility of high level government officials - have also impacted actors on the ground most intimately affected by the political context in which these violations have occurred. In semi-authoritarian Algeria, are people thinking of justice in the same way as seen recently in international politics – that is, justice through individual criminal prosecutions of former government and military officials? In semi-democratic Turkey, where domestic trials have occurred since 2009, I propose that elite infighting and legal mobilization can explain the emergence and recent stagnation of prosecutions. I study the mechanisms facilitating their emergence and how have these trials have impacted justice for families of the disappeared. This comparative analysis constitutes one of the first studies of the impact of international justice norms on the Middle East North Africa region. My data collection is based on in-depth interviews with human rights activists, legal professionals and relatives of the disappeared. I compare the findings of these two cases to understand more clearly how individual criminal responsibility emphasized in the international realm is affecting justice at the domestic level, and the accompanying political consequences.