In the last two decades, many countries going through transitional justice
have established truth commissions. Unlike conventional war tribunals, most truth
commissions are established by the local government and local human rights
groups. Truth commissions are still a nascent political choice, yet a sizable
literature has developed around it, evaluating its potential as a new institution for
dealing with the past and moving towards restorative justice. This work examines
four major questions debated in the transitional justice literature over truth versus
justice: 1) whether or not a truth commission is an valid alternative mechanism to
seeking out retributive justice, 2) whether or not truth commissions are the product
of political compromise which avoiding justice, 3) if truth commissions can be the
agent of new national identity and national unity founded on the principles of
universal human rights, and 4) if amnesty can be legitimized. This work aims to
determine to what extent the idea itself of truth commissions has been actualized
up to now and what lot it may expect in the future, despite incidental political
restrictions and difficulties in the political transition. Despite the common assertion
that the goals of truth commissions are to bring about official acknowledgment of
the past, restore the dignity of the victims, and achieve reconciliation in divided
society, this paper does not intend to evaluate the truth commissions in the past
based on these criteria; nor does this work intend to argue what truth commissions
can resolve in the transitional justice societies. Rather, this paper seeks to uncover what social reaction or human emotions truth commissions in the past have evoked
in a divided society. To explore the question, this paper focuses on the distinctive
activities and merits of truth commissions from the standpoint of retributive justice
and looks into the important implication in the interaction between the victims and
the perpetrators, as well as between the audience and those two parties. Roger
Errera, a member of the French Conseil d’Etat, stated that “Memory is the ultimate
form of justice.” Inspired by the statement, this work argues that justice can be
found in the act of pursing truth, remembering it, and responding to those voices
from the past.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5034 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Otsuki, Tomoe |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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