Why Do We Need Truth Commissions?

Years of violent conflict can devastate a society. Lives are lost, families are torn apart, buildings and infrastructure are destroyed, and legal systems are often severely damaged. Rebuilding a society can take years, even decades, to complete. Rebuilding a working legal and judicial system is just as difficult. Often, societies emerging from violent conflict need a practical and efficient mechanism to deal with the atrocities that have occurred in the immediate past. Victims of gross human rights abuses should not have to wait years for the truth to emerge. They need a way to come to terms with what they experienced. In addition, societies have an interest in knowing what has happened and who did it. Moreover, there is a risk that if societies do not publicly acknowledge what has occurred, the knowledge will be lost or suppressed.

Although there are formal means (through bodies like the programs/law_justice/faqs.html#General"> International Criminal Court and programs/law_justice/faqs.html#other_tribunals"> individual ad-hoc tribunals) to bring to justice major war criminals, it would be impossible for these courts to fairly hear the individual cases of every victim that experienced abuse during a conflict. In Sierra Leone, for example, nearly 75,000 people lost their lives during a civil war that raged for more than 10 years. Although a special court was established to try those bearing the greatest responsibility for the most heinous war crimes, the individual stories of most of the victims were not being heard, making it extremely difficult for victims and their families to come to terms with what had happened. So, in early 2000, a truth commission was established to allow victims and relatives a means by which they could formally provide the details of their individual stories, as well as try to reconcile feelings of hostility and vengeance for abuses they had endured.

What is a Truth Commission?

In general, a truth commission is a body created either by governments or international organizations (or both) in which victims, their relatives and perpetrators are given the opportunity to report on the details of individual human rights abuses that occurred during a particular conflict or in a particular time or place. Although the mandates of individual truth commissions vary, the primary goals of truth commissions are to account for past abuses of authority, promote amnesty and support political change. In many instances, truth commissions are also required by their mandate to provide recommendations for how to prevent the recurrence of the crimes committed.

The first truth commission was established in 1974 in Uganda. However, the practice of creating truth commissions did not gain momentum until 1983, when the Argentine government created the National Commission on the Disappeared to investigate the mass killings and disappearances that occurred under a military junta led by Lt. General Jorge Rafael Videla. Less than 10 months later, in September 1984, the 16-member commission issued a report on 9,000 cases of disappearances that occurred between 1976 and 1983. Since then, truth commissions have been established worldwide to address similar instances of gross human rights abuse.

The most noteworthy truth commission that has been created to date is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC was established in 1995 by the South African government to help victims of the apartheid deal with their experiences over the previous three and a half decades. Through the work of a 17-member body divided up into three different committees (an amnesty committee, a reparation and rehabilitation committee, and a human rights violations committee), the commission was able to hear the individual stories of victims and recommend appropriate forms of compensation. By October 1998, the commission had heard from more than 21,000 victims and had received over 7,000 applications for amnesty. 4,500 of these applications were denied while only 125 people had been granted amnesty by this time. The commission issued a 3,500 page report on its findings through the end of 1998. However, it continued conducting amnesty investigations through June of the following year. Presently, there are truth commissions operating in East Timor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Morocco and Paraguay.

Have Truth Commissions Been Successful?

It is difficult to determine the success of truth commissions. As a forum for the collection of detailed information about a recent conflict, truth commissions are successful. The notion of seeking amnesty for past crimes, however, is a much more complex and challenging problem. While a truth commission may grant amnesty to individuals on paper, victims and their family members have to live with the memories of what they endured for the rest of their lives, and consequently may never be able to “forgive and forget.” In terms of supporting political change, truth commissions have not been very successful. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), often, once truth commissions release their findings, operations cease and the body generally disintegrates. The truth commissions’ recommendations are rarely integrated into government policy. Nonetheless, truth commissions fulfill a valuable role in dealing with the aftermath of violent conflicts that post-conflict legal systems are poorly equipped to handle.

Last Updated April 4, 2005

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