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Amnesty or Impunity? A Preliminary Critique of the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (TRC)

Mamdani, Mahmood
June 4, 2015

Source: (2007) In Max du Plessis and Stephen Pete, ed., Repairing the Past? International Perspectives on Reparations for Gross Human Rights Abuses. Oxford, UK: Intersentia. Pp. 83-118.

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa was the fruit of a political compromise. The terms of the compromise both made possible the Commission and set the limits within which it would work. These limits, in turn, defined the space available to the Commission to interpret its terms of reference and define its agenda. This paper takes the compromise legislation that set up the TRC as a historical given and focuses attention on the TRC’s interpretation of its terms of reference.” (abstract)

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