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Past Truths, Present Dangers: The Role of Official Truth Seeking in Conflict Resolution and Prevention
Pages 338-382

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From page 338...
... States have turned to a range of transitional mechanisms in an effort to confront past crimes, hoping to achieve some measure of accountability, advance national reconciliation, and secure necessary institutional reforms to prevent future human rights abuses or the return to violence. The various mechanisms that have been used include prosecuting perpetrators in national and international courts; lustration or purges of those affiliated with a previous authoritarian government; the imposition of other noncriminal sanctions; material or nonmaterial compensation for victims; and official truth seeking, usually in the form of temporary investigative bodies that have acquired the generic name of "truth commissions."2 Each of these transitional measures serves different (although sometimes overlapping)
From page 339...
... As truth commissions have been more widely used and studied, however, it has become clear that they fill a very different role from judicial inquiries and trials. Truth commissions, defined as official, temporary mechanisms that are established to investigate a pattern of past human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law, are tasked with investigating, reporting, and recommending reforms, and in the process serve to formally acknowledge past wrongs that were silenced and denied.
From page 340...
... These international tribunals are also designed to respond to abuses by the state, but they function with the purpose and powers of a court. Truth commissions differ as well from other mechanisms that have been used in recent years to confront past human rights crimes after a political transition from authoritarian rule.
From page 341...
... Not all, in fact, are formally called truth commissions: in Guatemala, for example, there was a Historical Clarification Commission created under the UN-negotiated peace accords; Argentina set up a National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons; and in some countries these bodies are called Commissions of Inquiry (see Table 9.1~. All of these commissions share certain common elements and are created for similar purposes.
From page 344...
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From page 346...
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From page 347...
... The few that have received considerable international attention have helped define the field and shape the truth commissions that followed elsewhere particularly the Commission on the Disappeared in Argentina, which ended in 1984; the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, completed in 1991; the United Nations Commission on the Truth for E1 Salvador, which finished in 1993; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which released its report in October 1998; and the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission, which completed its report in early 1999. Only since the early 1990s have countries begun to look closely at the experiences of previous truth commissions before designing their own.
From page 348...
... Table 9.1 provides an overview of the truth commissions that have existed to date. There are a number of other examples of official inquiries into past human rights violations that fill many functions of a truth commission but that for various reasons do not fully qualify as a truth commission by the definition used here.
From page 349...
... published Uruguay: Nunca Mas, which is far stronger than the report resulting from the parliamentary inquiry, which was given a significantly limited mandate.8 The Human Rights Office of the archbishop of Guatemala undertook an extensive project to document decades of abuses and massacres in advance of the official truth commission there, hoping to both complement and strengthen the commission's work.9 In Russia the nongovernmental organization Memorial was set up in 1987 around the question of accountability and fact finding over past events. Its staff has collected extensive archives on state abuses back to 1917 and published several books with lists of victims' names and analysis of state policies of repression.~° In Latin America the truth has often been a first and fundamental demand as repressive regimes or bitter civil wars have come to an end.
From page 351...
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From page 352...
... Shortly after the Chilean report was released in 1991, the parties in the peace talks in E1 Salvador agreed to a Commission on the Truth, to be appointed and administered by the UN, to investigate abuses on both sides of the country's 12-year civil war. Due to political polarization and continued insecurity and fear about reporting human rights crimes, the commission would have only international commissioners and staff, in sharp contrast to the truth inquiries that preceded it elsewhere.
From page 353...
... It was given two and a half years to collect information about gross human rights violations by state bodies or the armed opposition between 1960 and 1994, to hold public hearings, and to publish a report with recommendations for reparations and reform. Over 20,000 victims came forward to give testimony, some 2,000 in public hearings.
From page 354...
... In South Africa many survivors told me that they could only forgive their perpetrators if they were told the full truth; almost incomprehensibly, hearing even the most gruesome details of the torture and murder of a loved one somehow brought them some peace. When is a truth commission an appropriate mechanism to help prevent, resolve, or at least mitigate violent conflict?
From page 355...
... Rather than closing the subject of the past, a successful truth commission should open up the issue to facilitate a more free and public discussion and help spark a longer-term process of national healing and reconciliation. Truth commissions might be categorized according to various overarching and defining characteristics, such as the following three means of classification, which are useful in recognizing the different forms that truth commissions take:
From page 356...
... . TRUTH COMMISSIONS AND THE PREVENTION OR RESOLUTION OF VIOLENT CONFLICTS The study of truth commissions has been framed to date around the issue of accountability for past human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law and an interest in the prevention of such abuses in the future.~4 Little focused attention has been given to the interplay between truth seeking and the resolution or prevention of violent conflict per se.~5 A distinction is in order: human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law often include violence, including violent and illegal arrests, torture and abuse in police stations and prisons, the disappearance or killing of activists or other political suspects, large-scale massacres, or harassment of minority communities.
From page 357...
... In addition, there is sometimes reason to fear that a strong truth commission report could spark revenge violence from victims and survivors or exacerbate tensions between ethnic or other groups that are already fragile. In Haiti the National Commission on Truth and Justice decided not to name perpetrators in its report in part because of concerns that those named could become victims of street justice, especially given the degree of general frustration and anger in the lack of prosecutions in court.~7 In Zimbabwe some have worried that releasing a long-closed human rights report could spark further conflict between groups.
From page 360...
... Where national or international will is lacking, knowing the truth alone is insufficient to halt further atrocities. Some truth commissions begin their work even while political violence continues.
From page 361...
... Because of continuing violence throughout the region, some of the commission's public hearings that took place in KwaZulu Natal were sparsely attended.22 Given the clear threat of greater conflict and potential violence resulting from a serious inquiry into past abuses, it is ironic that truth commissions have come to be seen as a peace-making tool. But the fact that they have is a testament to the power of a silenced and forbidden history, the great demand from victims to know the full truth behind their suffering, and a widespread perception that such a history, if left unaddressed, could be an even greater source of conflict for years to come.
From page 362...
... UN-moderated peace talks led to an end to the civil wars in both E1 Salvador and Guatemala; the resulting peace accords committed the parties to institutional and policy reforms and set out the structure of new state entities. Among these agreements were the terms for a Commission on the Truth in E1 Salvador and a Historical Clarification Commission in Guatemala.
From page 363...
... The disappointment and protests from these groups after the accord was signed, and their intense pressure on the armed opposition that agreed to the accord, came close to derailing the peace talks altogether. In other countries there have been negotiated peace agreements that have not included either the creation of a truth commission or any other measure to address past crimes.
From page 364...
... Reconciliation is the stated goal of many transitional initiatives, and none more so than truth commissions. But despite often being stated as an aim in a truth-seeking exercise, what is intended by "reconciliation" is rarely spelled out.
From page 365...
... Unfortunately, resistance to the truth will all too often continue, and serious efforts by former perpetrators to reach out to their victims or their families are rare. Some recent commissions have begun to address this problem in the course of their work, but much more serious and creative thinking is needed on how official truth seeking can consciously be used to initiate a wider process of community- and national-level reconciliation.
From page 366...
... Instead, the commissions called for legal justice and forwarded the names of the accused to prosecutors for further action. Outlining Reforms to Mitigate Conflicts and Protect Human Rights Beyond simply describing the past, truth commissions usually dedicate a portion of their reports to propose institutional and policy reforms to help prevent abuses in the future.
From page 367...
... Reforms that pertain to the reduction of violent conflict might be grouped into two types. First are those that aim to strengthen structures and laws that protect against abuses or to respond to abuses when they take place, including changes in the police or armed forces or in systems to hold accountable and punish those responsible for past abuses.
From page 368...
... . Elsewhere, the momentum of a political transition and pressure from nongovernmental organizations and the international community can help push through reforms, but ultimately the most important factor is the existence of national political interest and the will to make changes, at least for the vast majority of recommendations that are usually directed at governmental actors.
From page 369...
... Has community or individual healing been advanced? Have state officials or those representing former armed opposition groups acknowledged and apologized for past abuses?
From page 370...
... First, it is clear that most commissions have understood their primary responsibility to lie in their product and have thus structured their work around the investigation and resolution of key cases and the production of a final report. Questions of how the truth-seeking process might impact on society, especially how the commission's work might be structured to advance national-, community-, or individual-level reconciliation or healing, have usually not been seriously considered by past truth commissions as they designed their work plans (South Africa stands as the major exception)
From page 371...
... · Role of civil society. A strong and organized civil society is often critical to the creation of a strong commission, as human rights and victims' groups push for a strong mandate.
From page 372...
... Many of the basic limitations and powers of a commission will be spelled out in its written mandate (usually a presidential decree, legislative act, or peace accord) , which generally includes exactly what acts or events are to be investigated, over what period of time, and whether the commission has any powers such as an enforceable subpoena or witness protection capacity.
From page 373...
... As more and more states begin to turn to truth commissions or similar bodies as a means to address a difficult past, researchers and academics are just beginning to understand the complexity of questions and difficulties around this subject matter and to grapple with it seriously. The primary limitations in this field to date are as follow: (1)
From page 375...
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From page 376...
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From page 377...
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From page 378...
... What will be the relationship between the future International Criminal Court and national truth commissions, especially around legal questions of sharing evidence, confidentiality of investigations, and the use of witnesses? 30 What kind of international guidelines might be proposed, both to assist those designing future truth commissions and to hold commissions to reasonably high standards?
From page 379...
... Others have inferred a broader sense of responding to a widespread practice of human rights crimes or violations of humanitarian law, including those that may have taken place under a democratic government or those that may have taken place many years before. In some cases, fully democratic and nontransitional countries grapple with these very same issues (as in specific events or practices that have taken place in the United States, or in European states that today are still grappling with the legacy of World War II)
From page 380...
... Violations of international humanitarian law refer to crimes against the laws of war as articulated in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, committed by either government or opposition forces. 15While little serious research has been dedicated to this question, two recent important studies by the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and by the Aspen Institute's Justice and Society Program have identified official truth seeking as a central component to be considered in peace-making endeavors.
From page 381...
... 23See the "Agreement on the Establishment of the Commission to Clarify Past Human Rights Violations and Acts of Violence that Have Caused the Guatemalan Population to Suffer," United Nations Document A/48/954/S/1994/751, Annex II. Once under way, the commission's period of work was extended to 18 months.
From page 382...
... Others disagree with this view, seeing a truth commission as potentially advantageous in helping to gather information and material for later use by the tribunal. All agree, however, that these issues raise many questions that are likely to arise in the operations of the permanent International Criminal Court.


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