A truth commission ortruth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances,non-state actors also), in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. They are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest,civil war, ordictatorship.
Created byPresident of ArgentinaRaúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, theNational Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas) investigated human rights violations, including 30,000forced disappearances, committed during theDirty War. The research of the commission, documented in the Never Again (Nunca Más) report, included individual cases on 9,000 disappeared persons. The report was delivered to Alfonsín on 20 September 1984 and opened the door to theTrial of the Juntas, the first major trial held for war crimes since theNuremberg trials in Germany following World War II and the first to be conducted by a civilian court.
Australia
In March 2021, the state ofVictoria announced the creation of the first commission of inquiry inAustralia into the "violent dispossession and genocide of Aboriginal people during colonisation".[1]
The non-punitiveNational Truth Commission (Comissão Nacional da Verdade) was approved in late 2011 by theFederal Senate and sanctioned by PresidentDilma Rousseff. The commission will last for two years and consist of seven members appointed by the President. Members of the commission will have access to all government files about the 1946–1988 period and may convene victims or people accused of violations for testimony, although it will not be mandatory for them to attend. After the end of the two years period, the commission will issue a report with its findings. The group will not have, however, the obligation to disclose everything they discover.
TheNational Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comisión Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliación;[6] popularly known as the "Rettig Report"), created in April 1990, investigated deaths and disappearances, particularly for political reasons, underAugusto Pinochet's rule. The report was released in 1991. TheNational Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture ("Valech Report") also investigated human rights abuses from the reign of Pinochet. Released in 2004 and 2005, the commission differed from the previous one in that it investigated non-fatal violations of human rights, such as torture, and also covered children whose parents had disappeared or been killed. The report of this commission was used by the government of Chile to give out pensions and other benefits to survivors.
Czech Republic
TheOffice for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (Úřad dokumentace a vyšetřování zločinů komunismu) is a subdivision of Czech criminal police which investigates criminal acts from the period 1948-1989 which were unsolvable for political reasons during the Czechoslovak communist regime.
Ecuador
The Truth Commission (La Comisión de la Verdad) was established by the government to investigate the violation of human rights especially during the period of 1984 to 1988.
In October 2021, Finland established a truth and reconciliation commission to gather the experiences of theSámi people of the actions of the Finnish authorities and investigate their consequences for the Sámi. The term of the commission continues until 31 December 2025.[8]
TheTruth and Justice Commission of the Mauritius was an independenttruth commission established in 2009, which explored the impact ofslavery andindentured servitude inMauritius. The commission was tasked to investigate the dispossession of land, and “determine appropriate measures to be extended to descendants of slaves and indentured laborers.”[14][15] It was “unique in that it [dealt] with socio-economic class abuses" and explored the possibility of reparations.[14] The Commission attempted to cover more than 370 years, the longest period of time that a truth commission has ever covered.[14]
Established in 1975, theWaitangi Tribunal is a judicial body consistent with a truth commission which makes recommendations on claims brought to the tribunal by Māori relating to legislation, policy, actions or inactions by the Crown that are purported to be in breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
In 2018, aNorwegian truth commission was formed to investigate the experiences ofSámi andKven (Norwegian Finns) subject to Norwegian authorities' policies ofNorwegianization. On 9 May 2019, the commission's mandate was extended to include also theForest Finns. The commission submitted its report on 1 June 2023.[16]
After the end of the Sierra Leone civil war in 1999, the country created aSierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission which reported that both sides had targeted civilians, including children, and called for improvements in democratic institutions and accountability.
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. After an 18-month inquiry, the commission submitted its report to the President on 15 November 2011. The report was made public on 16 December 2011, after being tabled in theparliament.[23]
Sweden
On March 2020, Swedish government decided to appoint a truth commission to investigate violations and abuses againtsTornedalians,Kvens andLantalaiset [sv]. The commission submitted its report on 15 November 2023.[24]: Another truth commission was formed to investigate past abuse of theSámi by the Swedish state. The members of the commission were appointed in 2022, and its report is due on 1 December 2025.[25]
Taiwan
Transitional Justice Commission (促進轉型正義委員會) is an independent government agency responsible for the investigation of injustices committed by the government between 15 August 1945 and 6 November 1992, including theFebruary 28 Incident as well asWhite Terror.
A commission for historical and educational issues was created by the mutually signed relations regulation agreement in 2019 but still did not complete its report.
^Boraine, Alex. 2001. "A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission"; Ross, Fiona. 2002. "Bearing Witness: Women and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa."; Wilson, Richard A. 2001. "The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa."
