Transitional justice and truth commissions: exploring narratives of repair and healing in the post-Holocaust era

Abstract

The adoption of a resolution by the United Nations declaring 2009 the International Year of Reconciliation signaled the remarkable influence of truth commissions in international and domestic law. This article is a reflection on truth commissions. More precisely, it focuses on forgiveness of perpetrators as a unique outcome of this relatively new trend in transitional justice. The article identifies some developmental trends in the debates on forgiveness in the context of mass atrocity. Using a case example from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the article considers the subtleties of cultural nuances in the dialogical exchange between victim and perpetrator when both victims and perpetrators are black Africans. The discussion raises the question of whether forgiveness in societies emerging from mass violence might be viewed as a moral imperative necessary to heal societies from a destructive past. The article concludes by arguing that stories of forgiveness in politics may inspire reflective engagement with the past by perpetrators and bystanders who supported repressive governments, and that this may help create a reparative humanism and the possibility of societal transformation.

Keywords:

• truth commissions
• restorative justice
• forgiveness in cultural context
• healing after mass trauma
• reparative humanism

Notes

1. See also a special issue of the Journal of Human Rights, 5, 2006 on the subject of ‘resentment's virtue’ edited by Thomas Brudholm.

2. See Klein (2009) for an insightful analysis of Wiesenthal's book and a discussion of ‘post-Holocaust’ accounts of forgiveness.

3. The meeting between the mothers and the perpetrator was facilitated by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela in 1997. Some aspects of the meeting, including the mothers’ forgiveness of the perpetrator, are captured in the documentary Long night's journey into day, by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffman (Reid & Hoffman, 2000). It is important to point out that this was not a session on forgiveness training. When the family members agreed to meet the perpetrator, the facilitator held daily sessions of between 1 and 2 hours with the them over a period of a week to brief them about the possible emotional responses they should expect in the face-to-face encounter with the perpetrator, and to discuss their expectations.