Volume 11 : 1
Editorial: Critical Issues in Transitional Justice – A Sisyphean Exercise
Examining the Criticisms Levelled against Transitional Justice: Towards an Understanding of the State of the Field
After Things Fall Apart: Challenges for Transitional Justice Futures
Failing Victims? The Limits of Transitional Justice in Addressing the Needs of Victims of Violations
Reparations in Transitional Justice: Justice or Political Compromise?
Rethinking Post-Truth Commissions: Empowering Local Capacities to Shape the Post-Truth Commission Discourse
The Socialisation of Transitional Justice: Expanding Justice Theories within the Field
Localised Justice and Structural Transformation: How New Approaches to Transitional Justice Pull in Different Directions
The Enduring Colonial Legacies of Land Dispossessions and the Evolving Property Rights Legal Discourses: Whither Transitional Justice?
Editorial: Critical Issues in Transitional Justice – A Sisyphean Exercise
Examining the Criticisms Levelled against Transitional Justice: Towards an Understanding of the State of the Field
After Things Fall Apart: Challenges for Transitional Justice Futures
Failing Victims? The Limits of Transitional Justice in Addressing the Needs of Victims of Violations
Reparations in Transitional Justice: Justice or Political Compromise?
Rethinking Post-Truth Commissions: Empowering Local Capacities to Shape the Post-Truth Commission Discourse
The Socialisation of Transitional Justice: Expanding Justice Theories within the Field
Localised Justice and Structural Transformation: How New Approaches to Transitional Justice Pull in Different Directions
The Enduring Colonial Legacies of Land Dispossessions and the Evolving Property Rights Legal Discourses: Whither Transitional Justice?
Year
2017
Volume
11
Number
1
Page
71
Language
English
Court
Reference
M. ACIRU, “Rethinking Post-Truth Commissions: Empowering Local Capacities to Shape the Post-Truth Commission Discourse”, HRILD 2017, nr. 1, 71-82
Recapitulation
Truth commissions have become an important component of transitional justice. This follows the experiences of the 1980s and 1990s when they were used to address legacies of violence after transitions from authoritarianism and armed conflict. To date, over 40 truth commissions have been established worldwide. One of the key outputs of truth commissions is the recommendations contained in their reports. Few of these recommendations have, however, been adequately followed up and implemented. This article explores this gap and argues that the truth commission landscape has evolved towards more top-down processes, thereby limiting local involvement. This has contributed to the disengagement of the local actors in sustained activism in the truth commission and post-truth commission process. It addresses three issues regarding this observation. First, it examines the post-truth commission output and argues that truth commission recommendations are oft en not effectively implemented, despite this being one of the most significant ways of consolidating their legacy. Second, it discusses the changing truth commission landscape, which has resulted in less local ownership and declining interest in the post-truth commission process. Third, it explores how local capacities can be empowered to engage in truth commission debates on their own terms, thereby enhancing the impact of the commissions.
