The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Are all issues addressed? How does it compare to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Nos. 316–321

1997 ◽  
Vol 37 (321) ◽  
pp. 705-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Erasmus ◽  
Nadine Fourie

The response of the international community to the massacres and genocide in Rwanda was at times “reluctant” and “inadequate”. This can partly be explained by the amount of human and material resources that would have been required to restore peace and address the more fundamental issues of the failure of the State itself. The Rwandan experience does, however, also raise serious questions about the adequacy of international and regional structures responsible for maintaining and restoring peace.

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 1271-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Drumond

Abstract In recent years, debates around sexual violence against men (SVAM) started to gain momentum in policy and research. Yet, the conceptualization and empirical identification of SVAM became a matter of political contestation, with incidents often being depicted through de-sexualized labels such as ‘inhumane acts’ and ‘cruel treatment’. The fluidity of sexual meanings surrounding these episodes highlights the intricate relationship between ‘sex’ and ‘violence’: Do we always already know what sexual violence is? What does the language of sexual violence obscure, flatten and trivialize? This contribution draws on Marysia Zalewski's interventions to interrogate concepts and framings commonly used to ‘read’ episodes of sexual violence against men. In particular, it follows Zalewski and Runyan's efforts to ‘unthink’ what we ‘know’ and how we ‘know’ sexual violence against men in global politics, while interrogating the relationship between sex and violence in particular performances of bodily violence. The analysis draws on extensive archival research conducted in the files of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Surveyed documents include records and proceedings, such as trial transcripts and statements of victims and witnesses involved in incidents of violence against men during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia and Peru.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti ◽  
Lexy Seedhouse

A study informed by long-term fieldwork with Amazonian and Andean indigenous peoples examines their experiences of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Law of Prior Consultation. It engages with these efforts, which sought to address injustice by creating a new pact between the state and its indigenous citizens, their various failures, and the unintended opportunities that they have created for the political participation of indigenous peoples and their representatives.Un estudio basado en el trabajo de campo a largo plazo con los pueblos indígenas amazónicas y andinos examine sus experiencias de la Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliación y la Ley de Consulta Previa de Perú, que buscaba abordar la injusticia creando un nuevo pacto entre el estado y sus ciudadanos indígenas. Aborda sus diversos fracasos y las oportunidades no previstas que han creado para la participación políticas de los pueblos indígenas y sus representantes.


1999 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 254-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dugard

Since its establishment in 1995, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has captured the attention of an international community preoccupied with the problem of dealing with crimes of the past in divided societies. While the creation of a permanent international criminal court to punish those guilty of atrocities constituting international crimes has been the first priority, the international community has, albeit grudgingly, accepted that there may be circumstances in which amnesty and reconciliation hold out more hope for troubled societies than punishment. This realisation has led to the search for an acceptable alternative to punishment that does not result in absolute amnesty for those guilty of gross human rights abuses. The South African model, of conditional amnesty accompanied by the uncovering of the past, appears to offer such an alternative. This factor, together with the relief over the fact that apartheid has at last been laid to rest, accounts for the interest shown in the South African experience.The present note will not attempt to describe and analyse the South African precedent in detail. Instead it will provide an overview of the history, establishment and work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); examine the significance of the Report of the TRC for international humanitarian law; and consider the status of amnesty under contemporary international law in the context of the South African experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isheanesu Gusha

When Zimbabwe attained her independence from colonial powers in 1980, prospects of a peaceful nation were high, especially following the pledge made by the Prime Minister Elect in his victory speech. Isaiah 2:4b was quoted as a metaphor of peace, but things did not turn out as expected in the following years. The vicious cycle of violence that was inherited from the colonial legacy continued and the worse phase of that cycle was the Midlands and Matabeleland crisis, commonly known as Gukurahundi. Approximately 20 000 people died in the state-sanctioned violence (genocide). Using Cue-Dependent Forgetting Theory, this paper critically appraises possible reasons why the promised bliss through reconciliation did not materialise. Among the reasons cited in this paper are the lack of a serious Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and also the phenomenon of amnesia as the major contributory factors to this cycle of violence.


1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-302
Author(s):  
Iain S. Maclean

AbstractThis article is a theologico-ethical evaluation of the five-volume Report, published in October 1998, of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It comprises two major parts, the first a summary of the principles and political decisions that led to the formation of the commission and focusing primarily on the first volume, which deals with the TRC's mandate, method, structure and methodology, and on the fifth, which deals with the broader ethical, philosophical and religious principles which underlay that mandate. The second part is a theological and ethical evaluation which draws on the experiences of other such commissions, contemporary South African theologians and ethicists. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is found to have begun the process of bringing truth and reconciliation together, a process that requires, in addition, constructive action by the state, civil society, particularly churches (and other religions) and individuals, as the bearers of a moral order.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Proscovia Svärd

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.


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