Transitional Justice for Human Rights: The Legacy and Future of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Elin Skaar
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions

Using African Truth and Reconciliation Commission documentation for truth telling and reconciliation

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Reconciliation Process

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) are established to document violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in post-conflict societies. The intent is to excavate the truth to avoid political speculations and create an understanding of the nature of the conflict. The documentation hence results in a common narrative which aims to facilitate reconciliation to avoid regression to conflict. TRCs therefore do a tremendous job and create compound documentation that includes written statements, interviews, live public testimonies of witnesses and they also publish final reports based on the accumulated materials. At the end of their mission, TRCs recommend the optimal use of their documentation since it is of paramount importance to the reconciliation process. Despite this ambition, the TRCs’ documentation is often politicized and out of reach for the victims and the post-conflict societies at large. The TRCs’ documentation is instead poorly diffused into the post conflict societies and their findings are not effectively disseminated and used.

Transitional Justice, Truth and Reconciliation: An Under-Explored Relationship

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Conflict Reconciliation

AbstractMuch of the literature on transitional justice suffers from a critical impact gap, which scholars are only now beginning to address. One particular manifestation of this aforementioned gap, and one which forms the particular focus of this article, is the frequently-cited yet empirically under-researched claim that "truth" fosters post-conflict reconciliation. Theoretically and empirically critiquing this argument, this article both questions the comprehensiveness of truth established through criminal trials and truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) and underscores the often overlooked problem of denial, thus raising fundamental questions about the reputed healing properties of truth in such contexts. Advocating the case for evidence-based transitional justice, it reflects upon empirical research on South Africa's TRC and the author's own work on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Back to the Future? Confronting the Role(s) of Natural Resources in Armed Conflict Through the Lenses of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 373-400
Author(s):  
Eliana Cusato
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Sierra Leonean ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Conflict Strategies

Abstract Natural resources are critical factors in the transition from conflict to peace. Whether they contributed to, financed or fuelled armed conflict, failure to integrate natural resources into post-conflict strategies may endanger the chances of a long-lasting and sustainable peace. This article explores how Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (trcs), as transitional justice institutions, can contribute to addressing the multifaceted role of natural resources in armed conflict. Drawing insights from the practice of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian trcs in this area, the article identifies several ways in which truth-seeking bodies may reinforce post-conflict accountability and avoid the future reoccurrence of abuses and conflict by actively engaging with the natural resource-conflict link. As it is often the case with other transitional justice initiatives, trcs’ engagement with the role of natural resources in armed conflict brings along opportunities and challenges, which are contextual and influenced by domestic and international factors.

The Greenland Reconciliation Commission: Moving Away from a Legal Framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 214-244
Author(s):  
Astrid Nonbo Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions

This article aims to show to what extent ideas and models from the fields of restorative and transitional justice informed the work of the Greenland Reconciliation Commission. The article demonstrates that the idea of processing the past by articulating experiences of both colonialism and neocolonialism dominated the approach taken, and that consequently the legal aspects were only occasionally touched upon. This sets the Greenland Reconciliation Commission somewhat apart from previous truth and reconciliation commissions.

South Korea’s collective memory of past human rights abuses

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1113-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ñusta Carranza Ko
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Government

Embedded in transitional justice processes is an implicit reference to the production of collective memory and history. This article aims to study how memory initiatives become a crucial component of truth-seeking and reparations processes. The article examines South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the creation of collective memory through symbolic reparations of history revision in education. The South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended a set of symbolic reparations to the state, including history rectification reflective of the truth on human rights violations. Using political discourse analysis, this study compares the South Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report to the 2016 national history textbook. The article finds that the language of human rights in state sponsored history revisions contests the findings of the truth commission. And in doing so, this analysis argues for the need to reevaluate the government-initiated memory politics even in a democratic state that instituted numerous truth commissions and prosecuted former heads of state.

Emotional Legacies, Transitional Justice and Alethic Truth

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-165
Author(s):  
Janine Natalya Clark
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Therapeutic Jurisprudence ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Emotional Dimensions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Missed Opportunity

Abstract Transitional justice processes seek to address the legacy of past human rights abuses. This article focuses on the emotional dimensions of legacy. It argues that war crimes and human rights abuses leave important emotional legacies that have not received sufficient attention within transitional justice theory or practice, and underscores that any process of ‘dealing with the past’ is necessarily incomplete if powerful emotions connected to that past are overlooked. Drawing on the author’s fieldwork in the Bosnian village of Ahmići, the article aims to demonstrate that the neglect of emotional legacies — which it links to the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence — represents a missed opportunity to explore how the meta emotions that people share constitute potential new bases for building reconciliation in post-conflict societies such as Bosnia-Herzegovina. Reflecting more broadly on the relationship between truth and reconciliation, it emphasizes the utility of alethic truth as a concept that accommodates and draws attention to common emotions — and thus points to unexplored dimensions of the relationship between truth and reconciliation.

How effective have African truth commissions been?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 192-208
Author(s):  
William Gumede
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commissions ◽  
Lasting Peace

The study is a critical review of several African countries’ attempts to seek justice, truth and lasting peace after deadly conflict through the mechanisms of transitional justice, specifically through the establishment of truth and reconciliation commissions or equivalent structures. Outcomes for African commissions have been mixed. Some met with genuine success. Some were obviously ineffective, neither uncovering the truth, nor bringing justice to the victims or holding perpetrators accountable. The review will analyse why some African truth commissions have performed better, while others have been widely condemned as failures and missed opportunities. It will outline lessons for other African countries considering setting up truth commissions or related transitional justice mechanisms to tackle the legacies of a violent past, to bring justice, and to forge reconciliation and lasting peace.

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