A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances,
non-state actors also), in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. They are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest,
civil war, or
dictatorship.
Created by
President of ArgentinaRaúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, the
National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas) investigated human rights violations, including 30,000
forced disappearances, committed during the
Dirty War. The research of the commission, documented in the Never Again (Nunca Más) report, included individual cases on 9,000 disappeared persons. The report was delivered to Alfonsín on 20 September 1984 and opened the door to the
Trial of the Juntas, the first major trial held for war crimes since the
Nuremberg trials in Germany following World War II and the first to be conducted by a civilian court.
Australia
In March 2021, the state of
Victoria announced the creation of the first commission of inquiry in
Australia into the "violent dispossession and genocide of Aboriginal people during colonisation".[1]
The non-punitive
National Truth Commission (Comissão Nacional da Verdade) was approved in late 2011 by the
Federal Senate and sanctioned by President
Dilma Rousseff. The commission will last for two years and consist of seven members appointed by the President. Members of the commission will have access to all government files about the 1946–1988 period and may convene victims or people accused of violations for testimony, although it will not be mandatory for them to attend. After the end of the two years period, the commission will issue a report with its findings. The group will not have, however, the obligation to disclose everything they discover.
The
National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación;[6] popularly known as the "Rettig Report"), created in April 1990, investigated deaths and disappearances, particularly for political reasons, under
Augusto Pinochet's rule. The report was released in 1991. The
National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture ("Valech Report") also investigated human rights abuses from the reign of Pinochet. Released in 2004 and 2005, the commission differed from the previous one in that it investigated non-fatal violations of human rights, such as torture, and also covered children whose parents had disappeared or been killed. The report of this commission was used by the government of Chile to give out pensions and other benefits to survivors.
Czech Republic
The
Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu) is a subdivision of Czech criminal police which investigates criminal acts from the period 1948-1989 which were unsolvable for political reasons during the Czechoslovak communist regime.
Ecuador
The Truth Commission (La Comisión de la Verdad) was established by the government to investigate the violation of human rights especially during the period of 1984 to 1988.
The
Truth and Justice Commission of the Mauritius was an independent
truth commission established in 2009, which explored the impact of
slavery and
indentured servitude in
Mauritius. The commission was tasked to investigate the dispossession of land, and “determine appropriate measures to be extended to descendants of slaves and indentured laborers.”[14][15] It was “unique in that it [dealt] with socio-economic class abuses" and explored the possibility of reparations.[14] The Commission attempted to cover more than 370 years, the longest period of time that a truth commission has ever covered.[14]
Established in 1975, the
Waitangi Tribunal is a judicial body consistent with a truth commission which makes recommendations on claims brought to the tribunal by Māori relating to legislation, policy, actions or inactions by the Crown that are purported to be in breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
After the end of the Sierra Leone civil war in 1999, the country created a
Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission which reported that both sides had targeted civilians, including children, and called for improvements in democratic institutions and accountability.
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. After an 18-month inquiry, the commission submitted its report to the President on 15 November 2011. The report was made public on 16 December 2011, after being tabled in the
parliament.[22]
Sweden
In 2020, Sweden initiated an independent truth commission to research past abuse of the
Sámi by the Swedish state.[23]
Taiwan
Transitional Justice Commission (促進轉型正義委員會) is an independent government agency responsible for the investigation of injustices committed by the government between 15 August 1945 and 6 November 1992, including the
February 28 Incident as well as
White Terror.
A commission for historical and educational issues was created by the mutually signed relations regulation agreement in 2019 but still did not complete its report.
^Boraine, Alex. 2001. "A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission." ; Ross, Fiona. 2002. "Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa."; Wilson, Richard A. 2001. "The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa."