“Individual accountability in South Africa: Cultural optimum or political façade?”

Source: (2001) American Journal of International Law 95 (January): 32-45.

McGregor points out that states in political and social transition have dealt with their pasts in different ways. South Africa – moving from minority rule with apartheid to majority rule in a democracy, first through violence and then through negotiation – presents a unique approach to reckoning with the past. McGregor analyzes two key questions concerning South Africa’s post-apartheid approach: whether individual amnesty was the optimal method of accountability for past wrongs; and whether the Amnesty Committee (an autonomous body within the Truth and Reconciliation Committee) succeeded in applying individual amnesty (as structured and mandated in the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995). Her discussion assesses political conditions, legal options, principles and values, and issues relating to victims and perpetrators. She also examines the controversy over a general amnesty granted by the Amnesty Committee to thirty-seven leaders of the African National Congress.