The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) was an official body set up by the Government of South Africa to seek restorative justice after the end of the apartheid regime.
Persons who were identified as victims of serious human rights violations were invited to give testimony about their experiences. Many of these victims offered their stories in public hearings. The perpetrators of the violent acts could also confess their crimes, and it was their own victims who decided whether to grant them impunity. The TRC court never functioned as a judicial team, but as an intermediary between victims and perpetrators. Creation and fundamentals
The Commission was founded on the Law for the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation, sanctioned in 1995. It was headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who established as its motto: "Without forgiveness there is no future, but no confession there can be no forgiveness. " He published an official report in 1998 that was handed over to then-President Nelson Mandela.
There are very different assessments of the outcome of the Commission. His detractors believe that he provided impunity for confessed criminals. Its defenders argue that it allowed for the clarification of disappearances and other crimes that had remained in the dark in another way, as well as facilitated the victims to receive compensation and recognition for their suffering. Quite a few observers believe that this process of reconciliation and truth-seeking, related to the traditional concept that South Africans call Ubuntu, facilitated the South African political transition. In any case, it has undoubtedly become a model for later bodies that have used the name of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in different countries emerging from periods of violence, dictatorship or civil war.
The public hearings held by the Commission can be represented in the film Country of my skull.
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