Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 1995 (South Africa)

1995 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-231 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Full Disclosure ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Objective

In July 1995 this long-awaited Act was signed into law. Its Preamble states that it is: “To provide for the investigation and establishment of as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights committed during the period from 1 March 1960 to the cut-off date contemplated in the Constitution, within or without the Republic, emanating from the conflicts of the past, and the fate or whereabouts of the victims of such violations; the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of acts associated with a political objective committed in the course of the conflicts of the past during the said period; affording victims an opportunity to relate the violations they suffered; the taking of measures aimed at the granting of reparation to, and the rehabilitation and the restoration of the human and civil dignity of, victims of violations of human rights; reporting to the Nation about such violations and victims; the making of recommendations aimed at the prevention of the commission of gross violations of human rights; and for the said purposes to provide for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a Committee on Human Rights Violations, a Committee on Amnesty and a Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation…”

Disappointed Remains: Trauma, Testimony, and Reconciliation in Post-apartheid South Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Field
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Trauma Survivors ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Democratic Elections

The apartheid regime in South Africa and the fight against the same, followed by the reconciliation is the crux of this article. The first democratic elections held on April 27, 1994, were surprisingly free of violence. Then, in one of its first pieces of legislation, the new democratic parliament passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995, which created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. At the outset, the South African TRC promised to “uncover the truth” about past atrocities, and forge reconciliation across a divided country. As oral historians, we should consider the oral testimonies that were given at the Human Rights Victim hearings and reflect on the reconciliation process and what it means to ask trauma survivors to forgive and reconcile with perpetrators. This article cites several real life examples to explain the trauma and testimony of apartheid and post-apartheid Africa with a hint on the still prevailing disappointments and blurred memories.

scholarly journals Khoisan Identity: A Contribution towards Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Stephanus Klaasen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Period ◽  
Fixed Boundaries ◽  
Or History

This article seeks to explore the identity of the Khoisan as symbolic for reconciliation in South Africa. What contributions can the narrative of a marginalised people such as the Khoisan make to reconciling a divided nation such as South Africa? The Khoisan have been victims of continuous dispossession since the arrival of Bartholomew Diaz at the Cape in 1488. However, it was the taking of land in 1657 from the Khoisan for the free burgers that marked a significant period for the current discourse on land and for identity and reconciliation within post-apartheid South Africa. Notwithstanding the attempts by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to use narratives for healing, restoration, and continuing engagement with the meta-narratives of the past, my own use of narrative is open-ended with space for dialogue through interaction. The past or history does not have fixed boundaries, but rather blurred boundaries that function as spaces of transcendence. The narrative approach has four interactionist variables which are personhood, communication, power as reflected experience, and fluid community. I point out weaknesses of the use of narrative by the TRC as well as the interaction between experience and theory by practical theologians to construct an open-ended narrative of the Khoisan for reconciliation in South Africa.  

scholarly journals Reconciliation and psychiatry in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-64
Author(s):  
Bernard Janse van Rensburg
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
African Society ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Form Part

Although psychiatrists did not form part of the structures of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa (SPSA) at the time did make a submission. Since then, the local association of psychiatrists has been reconstituted as the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP). Psychiatry and psychiatrists may have to extend their activities beyond rehabilitation and restoration, to include endeavours to prevent future violations of human rights.

scholarly journals Reparating Women’s Rights Violation Within Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
M.Yakub Aiyub Kadir ◽  
Firmanila Firmanila
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Free Aceh Movement

The establishment of Aceh TRC is based on the 2005 peace agreement between the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which then regulated under Act No. 11 year 2006 on Governing of Aceh, and was manifested through the Aceh Qanun No. 17 year 2013 on Aceh TRC. Three years later, the commissioner of Aceh TRC was chosen and inaugurated by Aceh House of Representative on July 2016. This paper investigates Aceh TRC and its progress in fulfilling the rights of women as the victim of Aceh’s conflict,  challenges and some recommendation for better implementation of TRC. Using a normative and empirical research, this paper found that Aceh TRC is an institution to uncover the truth of the past human rights violations, to achieve reconciliation and to recommend a comprehensive reparation. Currently (May 2019), Aceh TRC is collecting data to achieve the first goal that is uncovering the truth, while the rights of women as victim in Aceh’s conflict is remain alienated. It is recommended that Aceh TRC should implement the urgent reparations as soon as possible considering the condition of the women’s victim and their rights, and also for the central and provincial government to be supportive in terms of financial and moral support.

Evaluating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2001 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Stanley
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Level

Following a negotiated transition to democracy in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to deal with crimes of the past regime. Despite the detail of submissions and the length of the Final Report, this article highlights the partiality of truth recognised by the Commission. The usefulness of acknowledged truth to deal with South Africa's past is shown to have been neutralised by wider concerns of social and criminal justice. In detailing the governmental reticence to provide reparations, the judicial disregard to pursue prosecutions, and the dismissal of responsibility for apartheid at a wider social level, the author argues that opportunities for reconciliation and developmental change are limited. Against the problems of crime, violence and unresolved land issues, the potential of the TRC to build a ‘reconciliatory bridge’ is called into question. The truth offered by the Commission increasingly appears of limited value.

scholarly journals "We Never Did Return": Migration, Materiality and Time in Penny Siopis' Post-Apartheid Art

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 45-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison K. Young
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Medium Specificity ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Related Object

This article explores “migration” as both theme and operation in two works by the South African artist Penny Siopis, each created in the year 1997: the artist’s first film, My Lovely Day, and a related object installation entitled Reconnaissance (1900-1997). In each work, Siopis traces the course of her grandmother’s emigration from Europe to Africa through a variety of found, collected, or inherited components that bore witness to the longue durée of imperialism and Apartheid. Mediating between national, cultural, and familial narratives, these works are inherently archaeological in nature, and allowed viewers at the time to reflect on the multiple entangled histories that comprised the post-Apartheid condition. The late nineties in South Africa were defined by the conclusion of Apartheid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and two major biennale exhibitions of contemporary art. The decade thusly saw a stream of collective efforts to both unearth the past and envision the future, marking a time of great cultural, artistic, political, and discursive transition. Mapping questions of medium-specificity and affect over this larger context, I investigate Siopis’ use and manipulation of historical traces as well as notions of contemporaneity and temporality in her art.

scholarly journals APLA and the Amnesty Committee of the TRC? An Ethical Analysis of the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tshepo Lephakga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
White People ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
White Settlers ◽  
Political Objective ◽  
Desmond Tutu

This article examines the role of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It focuses on the amnesty committee and challenges regarding amnesty applications of members and supporters of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), an armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). These complications emanated from policies and politics of the mother-body (PAC) and APLA, which made it difficult to distinguish between acts with a political objective committed by bona fide APLA members and purely criminal acts committed for personal gain. Such policies were expressed in: 1) The APLA slogan “One Settler, One Bullet”; and 2) The policy regarding “Repossession of property” by Azanians. The position of APLA needs to be understood against the fundamental politics of the PAC that the presence of white settlers in South Africa (occupied Azania) is an act of occupation, dispossession and colonisation. Thus, all white people in South Africa are regarded as settlers and targets for APLA. This position contends that, as a result of the settler status of all white people in South Africa, everything that they purportedly own belongs to Azanians and must be repossessed. Another complication—according to the TRC—was for some applicants to meet at least one of the requirements for amnesty, since any incident committed had to constitute an act associated with a political objective. Other challenges were lack of documentation to prove membership of APLA, and the autonomy or independence of the mother body (PAC) and its armed wing (APLA).

Custodians of Memory: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-425
Author(s):  
Mary Burton
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The People ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Discrimination And Oppression

South Africa is widely admired for its peaceful transition from a period of discrimination and oppression to a legitimate functioning democracy in which human rights are recognized and protected by the Constitution and the courts. Nevertheless, it is still a country traumatized by its recent past. There is a great need for building and strengthening processes of development, reparation, reconciliation and the healing of painful memories. The country has just celebrated National Heritage Day, and these memorial occasions are important in reminding us all of how far we have come, and the people and events which brought us to this point.

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