Truth, confessions and reparations: Lessons from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Abstract

Collective violence in the form of war, state-sponsored acts of terror and institutionalised human rights violations, continue to be centrally implicated in the high rates of death and disability across the globe in contemporary societies. Alongside this recognition we have witnessed the development of ongoing economic, political and social initiatives aimed at preventing collective forms of violence and conflicts, and mediating against their long-term impacts and effects. To this end, post-conflict commissions have become a fairly well-established psychological, social and political institutional mechanism to address past atrocities; one of the most acclaimed exemplars is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This article reflects on the South African TRC, and highlights the challenges that it has faced in meeting three pivotal aims, namely the eliciting of truth, acting as a facilitating space for confessions related to human rights violations, and effecting reparative processes for the victims of such acts of violence. The article notes that while the TRC may be considered a success in the context of post-apartheid nation-building it falls short as a comprehensive strategy for just reconstruction in post-conflict contexts, since it tends to contribute to the construction of a notion of social healing without significant forms of social justice embedded within it.