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Supporting post-conflict reconciliation : an assessment of international assistance to South Africa's Truth Commission

This thesis provides a baseline understanding of the support given by foreign governments to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The study endeavours, first, to analyze the instances of international assistance provided to the TRC to determine what aid worked well and why or why not. The thesis finds overall that foreign support has been an important bulwark to the Commission. Nevertheless, the thesis identifies shortcomings in the effectiveness of foreign assistance to the TRC. Based on these findings the thesis pursues a second objective: extracting lessons from the TRC to guide future international efforts in support of truth commissions in post-conflict and transitional states. The thesis underscores common challenges facing truth commissions. By extrapolating from the South African case the thesis recommends ways international actors can best help future truth commissions overcome these difficulties.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.33302
Date January 2000
CreatorsMcPherson, Duncan M.
ContributorsBrynen, Rex (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Department of Political Science.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001778338, proquestno: MQ70610, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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