What is a Truth Commission?Truth commissions are generally understood to be "bodies set up to investigate a past history of violations of human rights in a particular country -- which can include violations by the military or other government forces or armed opposition forces." Hayner delineates four main characteristics of truth commissions.
@ First, they focus on the past. The events may have occurred in the recent past, but a truth commission is not an ongoing body akin to a human rights commission.
@ Second, truth commissions investigate a pattern of abuse over a set period of time rather than a specific event. In its mandate, the truth commission is given the parameters of its investigation both in terms of the time period covered as well as the type of human rights violations to be explored.
@ Third, a truth commission is a temporary body, usually operating over a period of six months to two years and completing its work by submitting a report. These parameters are established at the time of the commission's formation, but often an extension can be obtained to wrap things up.
@ Fourth, truth commissions are officially sanctioned, authorized, or empowered by the state. This, in principle, allows the commission to have greater access to information, greater security, and increased assurance that its findings will be taken under serious consideration.
Since the mid-1970s, an unprecedented number of states have attempted the transition to democracy. One of the significant issues many of these states have had to deal with is how to induce different groups to peacefully coexist after years of conflict. Particularly since the early 1990s, the international human rights community has advocated truth commissions as an important part of the healing process, and they have been suggested as part of the peace process of virtually every international or communal conflict that has come to an end since. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. Anybody who felt he or she had been a victim of violence could come forward and be heard at the TRC. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution.
Creation and mandate
The TRC was set up in terms of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No. 34 of 1995, and was based in Cape Town. The mandate of the commission was to bear witness to, record and in some cases grant amnesty to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations, reparation and rehabilitation.Committees
The work of the TRC was accomplished through three committees:
@ The Human Rights Violations Committee investigated human rights abuses that occurred between 1960 and 1994.
@ The Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee was charged with restoring victims' dignity and formulating proposals to assist with rehabilitation.
@ The Amnesty Committee considered applications from individuals who applied for amnesty in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Public hearings of the Human Rights Violations Committee and the Amnesty Committee were held at many venues around South Africa, including Cape Town (at the University of the Western Cape), Johannesburg (at the Central Methodist Mission), and Randburg (at the Rhema Bible Church).
Findings
The commission brought forth many witnesses giving testimony about the secret and immoral acts committed by the Apartheid Government, the liberation forces including the ANC, and other forces for violence that many say would not have come out into the open otherwise.
Impact
The TRC sharply contrasted the Nuremberg Trials from WWII, and the subsequent prosecutions of former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. Due to the perceived success of the reconciliatory approach in dealing with human-rights violations after political change either from internal or external factors, other countries have instituted similar commissions, though not always with the same scope or the allowance for charging those currently in power. The success of the "TRC method" versus the "Nuremberg method" of prosecution (as seen used in Iraq) is open for debate.
Criticisms
A 1998 study by South Africa's Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation & the Khulumani Support Group, which surveyed several hundred victims of human rights abuse during the Apartheid era, found that most felt the TRC had failed to achieve reconciliation between the black and white communities. Most felt that justice was a prerequisite for reconciliation rather than an alternative to it, and that the TRC had been weighted in favour of the perpetrators of abuse.
The Operation of Truth Commissions
Simply put, the truth commission's main goal is to establish what happened in the past. Truth commissions do not normally have the power to prosecute. They can make recommendations for prosecution, but this is quite rare. Commissions usually do not even "name names". Often, when a truth commission has been established, the perpetrators of the abuses have been granted amnesty. Because of this, there may appear to be a conflict between finding the truth and administering justice. Finally, the ability of a truth commission to successfully conduct its mission depends on the resources it has at its disposal.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Margaret Popkin and Naomi Roht-Arriaza describe four main goals for truth commissions.@ Truth commissions seek to contribute to transitional peace by "creating an authoritative record of what happened;
@ providing a platform for the victims to tell their stories and obtain some form of redress;
@ recommending legislative, structural or other changes to avoid a repetition of past abuses; and @ establishing who was responsible and providing a measure of accountability for the perpetrators."
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