scholarly journals The South African TRC as Neoliberal Reconciliation: Victim Subjectivities and the Synchronization of Affects

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh Bowsher
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Do So

This article brings new insights from critical neoliberalism studies into dialogue with recent critical human rights scholarship to develop a theoretically driven analysis of South Africa’s post-apartheid transition. With South Africa’s post-apartheid settlement becoming increasingly fragile, there is a growing need to revisit the purported miracle of transition. Recognizing this need, the article critically explores the relationships between the social transformations wrought by South Africa’s neoliberal transition and the parallel processes of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Understanding neoliberalism as a modality of governing concerned with producing subjects as individualized enterprises, I analyse the TRC as a mechanism which supported this objective by ‘de-collectivising’ the social and making it more amenable to the demands of post-apartheid neoliberalism. To do so, I explore how the TRC’s use of public testimony and mass-media broadcasting displaced collective struggles against apartheid with a range of subjectivities organized around human rights victimhood. The overall effect of the TRC, I conclude, was to constitute post-apartheid society as a thin, individualized and ultimately fragile ‘community of emotion’ that comfortably sits within the limits of South African neoliberalism. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of this analysis for other transitional contexts.

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.

Toward the Truth About the Trc: a Response To Key Moral Criticisms of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilhelm J. Verwoerd
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
Retributive Justice ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation

AbstractIn this article the 'genre' of the TRC Report is clarified in order to answer some of the criticisms of the TRC. It is argued that the TRC conceptualised its role as the promotion of restorative justice rather than retributive justice. Justice and reconciliation is served not by isolating perpetrators of gross human rights violations but by restoring human community. Different aspects of the effects of the TRC's work are considered, namely reconciliation, amnesty and forgiveness Justice-based and reconciliation-based criticisms of the TRC are answered.

scholarly journals Reparasie, die onbetaalde rekening van die Waarheids- en Versoeningsproses

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-315
Author(s):  
P. G. J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Final Question

Reparations, the unpaid account of the Truth and Reconciliation ProcessThe author contends that the final question about the contribution of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission will not be whether the Human Rights Violations Committee or even the Amnesty Committee were successful in their respective tasks of collecting data, as well as holding numerous victims' and amnesty hearings throughout the country, but concerns the question of reparation to the victims of apartheid. Raising his concern about the fact that government was slow to act upon the TRC’s reparation proposals, he underlines the reasons why proper reparation was of supreme importance to the victims as well as to the nation. After discussing the five categories of reparation proposals, the author suggests a number of areas where the faith communities in the country have a unique and significant contribution to make.

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.

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 Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: Hindu experiences and concerns

2004 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.G.J. Meiring
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Hindu Community ◽  
The Way

The author who served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), focuses on the Hindu experience in South Africa during the apartheid years. At a special TRC Hearing for Faith Communities (East London, 17-19 November 1997) two submissions by local Hindu leaders were tabled. Taking his cues from those submissions, the author discusses four issues: the way the Hindu community suffered during these years, the way in which some members of the Hindu community supported the system of apartheid, the role of Hindus in the struggle against apartheid, and finally the contribution of the Hindu community towards reconciliation in South Africa. In conclusion some notes on how Hindus and Christians may work together in th

Any Role for Human Rights in the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Addressing Forced Assimilation?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Hans Morten Haugen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The North ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
The Right

Abstract Norway’s policies regarding Sámi and most national minorities in an historic perspective can be characterized as forced assimilation; except for Jews and Roma, where the historic policy can be termed exclusion. The Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (trc) is intended to be a broad-based process, resulting in a report to the Norwegian Parliament in 2022. After identifying various explanations for the relatively strong standing of the (North) Sámi domestically and in international forums, the article identifies various ways that human rights will be important for the trc’s work and final report: (i) self-determination; (ii) participation in political life; (iii) participation in cultural life; (iv) family life; (v) private life; and (vi) human dignity. Some of these rights are relatively wide, but all give relevant guidance to the trc’s work. The right to private life did not prevent the Norwegian Parliament’s temporary law to enable the trc’s access to archives

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