Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions by Priscilla B. Hayner, Timothy Garton Ash (Preface by)

Synopsis

Hayner, a program director at the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York City, explores how states and individuals might reckon with horrible abuses of the past, specifically focusing on the role played by official bodies set up to investigate and report on a pattern of past human rights abuses, an approach pioneered in South Africa

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Confronting Past Crimes 10

3 Why a Truth Commission? 24

4 Five Illustrative Truth Commissions 32

5 Sixteen Less-Prominent Commissions 50

6 What is the Truth? 72

7 Truth Versus Justice: Is it a Trade-Off? 86

8 Naming the Guilty 107

9 Healing from the Past 133

10 An Eye to the Future: Reconciliation and Reforms 154

11 Reparations for State Crimes 170

12 Leaving the Past Alone 183

13 Truth Commissions and the International Criminal Court:

Conflict or Complement? 206

14 Inside the Commission: Problems and Practicalities 213

15 Challenges and Assistance from the Outside 234

Epilogue: Looking Forward 249

Afterword: An Expanding Universe of Official Truth-

Seeking 255

Notes 269

Frequently Cited Sources 303

Appendix 1 305

Chart 1 Twenty-one Truth Commisions

Chart 2 "Historical" Truth Commissions

Chart 3 Alternative Forms of Official or Semi-Official Inquiry into

the Past

Chart 4 What Rights Violations do Truth Commissions Cover?

Chart 5 Past Truth Commission Recommendations

Chart 6 Reparations from Truth Commissions: A Comparision of

Chilean and Argentine Benefits for Victims

Chart 7 A Comparision of Resources and Responsibilities

Chart 8 What Works Best?

Appendix 2 Interviews by the Author 337

Index 345