![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
This article employs a social constructivist framework to explain truth commission policy transfer across borders. Using the cases of Ghana and Canada, the article draws on qualitative interview research to trace how and why the truth commission model was adopted by these two countries in response to past human rights abuse. In contrast to suggestions that the transnational proliferation of truth commissions is the result of behavioral socialization emanating from “one-size-fits-all” international regulative structures, we argue that the idea of a truth commission is adopted and adapted by domestic agents, with the assistance of international actors, in the face of domestic constraints that bar the path to alternative transitional justice policy choices. Our findings show that actors both act upon and act within existing structures, and ideas play a significant, constitutive role in helping to shape peoples’ shared beliefs about the best way to address an abusive past. The article includes methodological explanation of what we can learn from nonparadigmatic transitions such as Ghana's and Canada's, and it concludes with a brief discussion of the role of international transitional justice actors.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all research respondents in both locations for their time and insights and to acknowledge Emily Gillespie for editing assistance. The authors equally thank the anonymous reviewers as well as the editorial team for their comments.
Notes
The constructivist framework for truth commission policy transfer is adapted from Oduro (Citation2012).
Our use of “structure” follows Giddens’ (1984) notion of the organized sets of rules and resources that people draw upon to produce and reproduce societies in their various activities. Structure thus embodies critical collective meanings (norms, culture) and understandings arising out of rules, resources, and institutions that govern society, and the interactions that go on in order to produce certain outcomes. It does not have physical existence on its own and depends on the habitual actions of agents to reproduce itself.
Each author's research was approved by his or her respective research ethics board at Carleton University and Nipissing University.
See Nagy (Citation2013a) for a discussion of how the Canadian case is not so far apart from paradigmatic transitions with respect to structural violence.
Professor Mike Oquaye, Senior Official of the NPP/Member of the NPP's 2000 Election Manifesto Committee, currently Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, May 8, 2009; Honourable Papa Owusu-Ankomah, former Majority Leader in Parliament (NPP)/Minister of Parliamentary Affairs (2001–2003), former Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2003–2004), currently Minister of Trade, Industry & Presidential Special Initiatives, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, August 5, 2008.
Professor Mike Oquaye, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, May 8, 2009.
Views from participants at a focus group discussion held in Accra on January 15, 2009.
Oquaye, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, May 8, 2009.
Honorable Cletus Avoka, a Member of Parliament, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, July 31, 2008.
Joseph R. A. Ayee, Professor of Political Science/Dean, Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ghana, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, July 30, 2008.
Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle, Catholic Bishop/Commissioner of the NRC, personal interview with F. Oduro, Ghana, May 14, 2009.
Some of the experts from ICTJ who advised on the Ghana process included Alex Boraine, Vasuki Nesiah, Eric Okyere Darko, Mark Freeman, Louis Bickford, and Priscilla Hayner. Hayner (Citation2011), for example, records her involvement in the Ghana truth commission policy formulation processes in her latest book on truth and reconciliation commissions.
The international actors’ intervention in the Ghanaian case occurred at the invitation of the domestic actors. For instance, the CDD-Ghana invited the ICTJ to participate at conferences held in June and October 2001 as part of the public discourse on the truth commission policy formulation process.
Eric Okyere Darko, former Documentation Officer, ICTJ, personal interview with F. Oduro, United States, May 25, 2008.
For example, Douglas Cassel and Jan Perlin, professors from Northwestern University and the American University, respectively, advised Ghana on the policy formulation process as well as Yasmin Sooka, a member of the South African TRC.
Attendance of some groups, like the Catholic Church, government, and AFN, was more sporadic. Reverend James Scott, United Church General Council Officer for Residential Schools, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, August 12, 2010.
Reverend James Scott, United Church General Council Officer for Residential Schools, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, August 12, 2010.
Considerable comparative research also had to do with compensation models, which was the primary focus of the critique of ADR.
Professor Kathleen Mahoney, AFN Chief Negotiator, telephone interview with R. Nagy, September 20, 2011.
Seetal Sunga, former Special Advisor, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, former Legal Counsel for the TRC, telephone interview with R. Nagy, April 29, 2013.
Phil Fontaine, former AFN Chief, personal interview with R. Nagy, Halifax, October 28, 2011.
Reverend James Scott, United Church General Council Officer for Residential Schools, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, August 12, 2010.
Chief Robert Joseph, Executive Director, Indian Residential Schools Survivor Society, personal interview with R. Nagy, Winnipeg, June 18, 2010.
For a more in-depth analysis of how grassroots and legalistic visions of a truth commission were merged during the negotiations yet continue to exist somewhat in tension, see Nagy (2013b).
Professor Kathleen Mahoney, AFN Chief Negotiator, telephone interview with R. Nagy, September 20, 2011.
Sharon Thira, former Executive Director of Indian Residential School Survivors Society, telephone interviews with R. Nagy, October 13, 2010 and January 26, 2012.
Unattributable telephone interview with R. Nagy, December 1, 2010.
Mario Dion, former Deputy Minister Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, October 6, 2011.
Sharon Thira, former Executive Director of Indian Residential School Survivors Society, telephone interview with R. Nagy, January 26, 2012.
This is not to suggest that Stanton takes a realist approach. Note, however, that prior to negotiations, the Roundtable had determined to hold its own TRC and had even started advertising for an executive director. Chief Robert Joseph, Executive Director, Indian Residential Schools Survivor Society, personal interview with R. Nagy, Winnipeg, June 18, 2010.
Maggie Hodgson, telephone interview with R. Nagy, June 21, 2011.
Maggie Hodgson, telephone interview with R. Nagy, June 21, 2011.
Chief Robert Joseph, personal interview with R. Nagy, Winnipeg, June 18, 2010.
Maggie Hodgson, telephone interview with R. Nagy, June 21, 2011.
Maggie Hodgson, written communication with R. Nagy, May 23, 2012. For the full set of principles, see the “Introduction to Schedule N” of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement at http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/SCHEDULE_N.pdf.
Maggie Hodgson, telephone interview with R. Nagy, June 21, 2011. There is of course a limit to the claim about the mutability of interests and structural roles. One of the conclusions drawn over years—stemming in part from advice during the Exploratory Dialogues from a lawyer for Mount Cashel victims of child abuse—was to avoid a “lawyered up” process if one wanted truth and reconciliation.
Mario Dion, former Deputy Minister Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, October 6, 2011.
Mario Dion, former Deputy Minister Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, personal interview with R. Nagy, Ottawa, October 6, 2011; The Honourable Andy Scott, former Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, personal interview with R. Nagy, Fredericton, May 29, 2011.
Assembly of First Nations and University of Calgary Faculty of Law conference, “Residential Schools Legacy: Is Reconciliation Possible?” held March 12–14, 2004, University of Calgary Rozsa Centre.
Professor Kathleen Mahoney, AFN Chief Negotiator, telephone interview with R. Nagy, September 20, 2011.
Seetal Sunga, former Special Advisor, Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada, former Legal Counsel for the TRC, telephone interview with R. Nagy, June 22, 2010.
Kimberly Murray, TRC Executive Director, telephone interview with R. Nagy, July 26, 2011.
Unattributable telephone interview with R. Nagy, December 1, 2010.
