Date Published:
Feb 1, 2007
Abstract:
Truth commissions have become key mechanisms in transitional justice
schemes in post conflict societies in order to assure transitions to peace,
the rule of law, and respect for human rights. However, few studies examine
what must happen to ensure that the transition process initiated by a
truth commission successfully continues after the commission concludes
its truth-gathering work and submits its final report. This article argues that while attention often focuses on prosecutions and institutional reforms,
reparations also play a critical role. The authors share their observations
of how government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
civil society sectors and victim-survivor’s associations struggle over reparations
in post truth commission Peru, offering a preliminary analysis of key
theoretical suppositions about transitional justice: they explore whether
the act of telling the truth to an official body is something that helps or
hinders a victim-survivor in his or her own recovery process, and whether
in giving testimonies victim-survivors place particular demands upon the
state. The authors conclude that while testimony giving may possibly have
temporary cathartic effects, it must be followed by concrete actions. Truth
tellers make an implicit contract with their interlocutors to respond through
acknowledgment and redress.
Notes:
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