South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission
Description
In my presentation I will draw on my experience as a researcher for three years with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reflect on the impact of the TRC process on post-apartheid South African society. I will discuss how the initially poorly understood concept of reconciliation developed under the leadership of Archbishop Tutu and President Mandela into a grand ideological narrative and became a core element of the social glue that ensured that South Africa survived a dangerous and fragile transition as a single national entity, a situation by no means guaranteed by the terms of the transition.
In so doing, I will discuss both the intended and unintended consequences of the TRC process and argue that the international human rights community needs to move away from its current hard line on amnesty and take a fresh look at the South African process which in my view, has the potential to be South Africa's great contribution to international human rights practice in the context of transitions from authoritarian to democratic regimes.
South Africa's Truth & Reconciliation Commission
In my presentation I will draw on my experience as a researcher for three years with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reflect on the impact of the TRC process on post-apartheid South African society. I will discuss how the initially poorly understood concept of reconciliation developed under the leadership of Archbishop Tutu and President Mandela into a grand ideological narrative and became a core element of the social glue that ensured that South Africa survived a dangerous and fragile transition as a single national entity, a situation by no means guaranteed by the terms of the transition.
In so doing, I will discuss both the intended and unintended consequences of the TRC process and argue that the international human rights community needs to move away from its current hard line on amnesty and take a fresh look at the South African process which in my view, has the potential to be South Africa's great contribution to international human rights practice in the context of transitions from authoritarian to democratic regimes.