Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions 

Introduction

Hello, my name is Milena Sterio, and I'm the Charles R. Emmerick Jr., Calfee, Halter, and Griswold Professor of Law at the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. Today, I will be speaking to you about truth and reconciliation commissions.  

There are two main mechanisms for truth seeking. These are truth and reconciliation commissions, as well as commissions of inquiry and fact finding missions. One of the primary mechanisms for truth seeking are truth and reconciliation commissions.  

Truth Seeking

Truth seeking is the process of investigating past abuses to determine what happened, why it happened, and to what was their effect, in order to prevent future abuses.  

Truth seeking mechanisms focus less on punishment.  Instead, truth seeking mechanisms help create a historical record to prevent denial of past abuses and help victims and communities come to terms with the past by acknowledging that violations occurred.  

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are either non judicial or quasi judicial bodies that investigate past abuses to establish the truth.

Truth Commissions generally publish a final report with policy recommendations, disseminate victims voices, and create an impartial historical record.  Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are different from tribunals.  The purpose of a truth and reconciliation commission is to establish an accurate historical narrative and seek truth, whereas the purpose of a tribunal is to impose justice on perpetrators of atrocities. 

Similarly, truth and reconciliation commissions are often tasked with examining amnesty applications, whereas tribunals have different goals of imposing accountability.  

As a general matter, amnesties for atrocity crimes and international crimes are illegal under international law.  But these issues of truth versus justice and amnesty versus accountability may arise in connection with lesser domestic crimes.  

South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

An example of a successful truth commission is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which heard testimony from thousands of individuals and established an impressive historical record of the conflict in South Africa. 

As a general matter, individuals who testified before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission were granted amnesty from future domestic prosecutions if they were able to establish that the acts which they committed had a political purpose.  

Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Darfur

Another example of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will be established in the near future, is in Darfur, Sudan. 

The so called Darfur Track Agreement provides for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.  The committee's mandate is:

• to identify and assess the root causes of conflict in Darfur, 

• to investigate broad violations and human rights abuses, 

• to hold hearings, 

• to receive testimonies and statements from victims and witnesses, 

• to create a comprehensive record of all crimes and forms of violations, and 

• to report its findings with recommendations to the regional government of Darfur. 

Commissions of Inquiry and Fact Finding Missions

A second mechanism for truth seeking are commissions of inquiry and fact finding missions.  Commissions of inquiry and fact finding missions investigate past abuses to discover the truth and usually focus on a particular event, category of crimes, or time period. 

While truth commissions are useful for establishing the truth, truth commissions created with the restrictive investigative mandates may not account for all abuses. 

Examples of fact finding missions include those in Libya and Venezuela.  And commissions of inquiry are present in Burundi and Syria. 

The Human Rights Council also established the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.  The mandate of this commission has been temporally extended by subsequent resolutions in the recent years. 

Conclusion

As a general matter, truth seeking mechanisms, such as truth and reconciliation commissions, as well as commissions of inquiry and fact finding missions, play a complementary role to the pursuit of international justice.  Truth seeking mechanisms do not impose accountability on perpetrators, but they may assist investigations and future prosecutions by helping to create an accurate historical narrative of what happened.

In addition, truth seeking mechanisms contribute toward national reconciliation and healing.  And so long as they do not grant amnesty for atrocity crimes, they are not incompatible with international criminal justice.