South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Dispensing justice in a post-conflict situation

Verane Castelnau

When South Africa decided in 1994 to set up a truth commission, it had a double faceted intention: dispensing justice and working for national unity. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) allocated a forum for victims to tell their stories and granted amnesty to former apartheid criminals in exchange for full disclosure. Sometimes considered as an "exceptional form of justice" whose outcomes in terms of truth and reparations could easily be questioned, the TRC did restore the dialogue and achieved peace between communities that were less than fifteen years ago living separately. Compared to other systems of post-conflict justice, the TRC avoided the mistakes made by the South American commissions during the 80s and 90s and short-circuited the heavy procedures of war crime tribunals which have neither in former Yugoslavia nor in Rwanda brought peace between the people. Today, the South African TRC can serve as an example for the newly set-up truth commissions in Sierra Leone and East-Timor. It also represents a chance for the Balkans.

• From the National Peace Accord to the TRC
• Betting on a TRC: structures and risks
• The granting of amnesty: Which procedure for what kind of justice?

• The TRC in process
• Evaluation of the TRC outcomes

• Comparison with other Truth Commissions and War Crimes Tribunals
• The TRC: an example for East Timor and Sierra Leone, a chance for the Balkans

BIBLIOGRAPHY & LINKS

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