Preview

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2027 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the best and most effectiveness and best path of achieving truth and reconciliation in the South African context. Do you agree? Discuss

I agree that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the effectiveness and best path of achieving truth and reconciliation in the South African context. The TRC was established under the Government of National Unity (GNU) and was finalised by an act of a parliament known as the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, no 34 of 1995.

It was an idea of president Nelson Mandela, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Alex Boraine as vice-chairperson. The TRC hearings was an openness process as it was held in public and live broadcast on television and radio. It was to Investigate all the causes, nature and extent of gross human rights violation that occurred between 01 March 1960 and 10 May 1994

It is due to the TRC, that South Africa had managed to heal itself from the darkness of the past. The TRC also played a significant role on assisting South Africans to deal with the past so they can be able to face the coming future. It was its (TRC) measure that South Africa is now the united nation, the rainbow nation as called now and the country without violence.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an ambitious project established with the mandate to try to promote reconciliation in South Africa, which primarily focused on gross human rights violations in South Africa during apartheid era. Essentially, it tried to do that firstly by uncovering the truth about abuses and establishing exactly who was responsible to the extent of the abuses.

The TRC also managed to restore the humanity of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    factor in ending Apartheid. it was founded in response to the injustice against black south africans at the hand of the government then in power. By 1919 the anc was leading a campaign against passes that black people were forced to carry, but then the anc became dormant in the mid-1920s . at this time black people were also represented by the ICU and the…

    • 1760 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    daniel fisk

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    4. Questions: (a) Recall: What “covenant” does Mandela say the South African people are now entering?…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    South Africa Dbq

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In 1651, Dutch settlers first arrived in South Africa looking for slaves and goods, at the time they were known as Afrikaners. The Berlin Conference controlled the European colonization and trade in Africa by dividing the country into sections. The African efforts to resist European imperialism failed because they were unable to withstand the advanced weapons and other technology possessed by the Europeans. In 1948, a new system of racial segregation called Apartheid was founded, which caused whites to be superior and non-whites to be looked at as inferior, even though whites made up less than ten percent of South Africa’s population. During Apartheid, the African National Congress was formed, in response to the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, and led by Nelson Mandela. The Afrikaners fiercely supported the Apartheid because they felt it was necessary for their self-preservation, some of the members of the ANC believed in violence to end the Apartheid because the excessive government violence towards them, and the United Nations condemned Apartheid because they felt it was oppressive.…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nelson Mandela Paper

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages

    When most people think of a prominent figure in South Africa one name always comes to mind; Nelson Mandela. Imagine a time in South Africa when, similar to old America, whites held most of the power. Due to the previous conflicts of the European countries in South Africa, there were many Europeans who heavily discriminated against the original African people. This is exactly the type of place Mandela was born into. Born in 1918, his family was part of a common South African clan, where he always enjoyed hearing the elder’s stories. These stories consisted of the black Africans’ struggle against whites during the time of the Boer war (Nelson Mandela Center of Memory). It is because of this individual that the world looks at South Africa the in way it is done today. Nelson Mandela has left his mark on the country, for without him there may not be equality, democracy, and learning opportunities for the black people of South Africa.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The commission reported mass killings and massacres in Rwanda. Not only that, the level of corruption in the country put the government on the edge (www.hrw.org). Although Rwandan corruption was not equivalent to that of Zaire, it exposed the elite to corruption charges. The fear of facing charges of mass murder and corruption led to the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide. (African rights, 1995)…

    • 4123 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truth and Reconciliation

    • 2172 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Going further in detail as to why the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was ever needed in the first place, we must take a look at South Africa’s shameful Apartheid system which gripped the…

    • 2172 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The church’s admission and apology is seen as a positive step towards reconciliation. Rwandan genocide researcher Tom Ndahiro hopes that the statement will be instrumental in fostering unity among the…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    But other truth commissions have been less generous than South Africa’s. The Chilean Commission, for example, focused only on the disappearances and not on Chilean human rights abuses, although the El Salvadorian commission had a very broad mandate to address ‘serious acts of violence’ (for a comparison of the two see Ensalaco, 1994). The Northern Irish Victims Commission, not strictly a truth recovery process but which was set up as part of the peace accord, published a Report entitled We Will Remember Them, which completely excluded victims of state violence (for an account from the Chair of the Commission see Bloomfield, 1998) One response to control on the truth recovery process from above is to have community-based processes. However, these are mostly localized and focus on truth recovery in a particular neighbourhood or group, and thus tend to be quite deliberately partisan. One notable exception to this was Guatemala’s Commission for Historical Clarification, better known as the Recovery of the Historic Memory Project (1999). This was set up by the grassroots and civil society in Guatemala under the aegis of the Catholic Church as a popular response to the weakness of the state’s own truth commission. The Report was launched in 1998 to great controversy – the co-ordinator of the project was assassinated two days later. The project addressed country-wide cases of murder and managed to be popularly…

    • 6971 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A man with very humble beginnings, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was able to transform the country of South Africa through his application of his church work to social issues. However, Tutu’s lasting impact reaches much farther than just South Africa. Tutu will be remembered by the whole world as a man who would not stand for social injustice, and as a man whose compassion had no limits. There was never a time when Tutu felt that the opposition was too strong. Most famous for fighting against the cruel regime of the apartheid, Tutu was one of the most integral figures, if not the most, in the process of ending the harsh racial segregation in South Africa. It was because of Tutu’s high position in The Anglican Church, that he was able to have such a large audience for his varying opinions on what he felt was wrong the world. What sets the former…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 to fight the apartheid system in South Africa. To understand what the African National Congress is, it defines as “a national liberation movement” (“What is the ANC?” 1). Basically, Africans wanted to see a change in political, social, and economic circumstances, but they found themselves struggling because of racism, oppression, and apartheid. My own view, however, it is very difficult to imagine what the South Africans had gone through and the time of when the apartheid had started in 1948. Nelson Mandela was involved in activities with the group, such as non-violent acts of defiance like boycotts and civil disobedience (“Mandela:The face of the fight against apartheid” 1).…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Rwandan villages allowed Rwandans to have physical unity that lead to full unity between people. The World Cup made South Africans unite and accept each other to cheer for the Springboks. Amnesty could be an effective strategy if it comes as a result of a negotiation, however it can also give the wrong message to people by implementing dismissal and acceptance of the crime. Reconciliation is a difficult, but necessary process to go through after any conflict because it brings peace and unity to both parties. Reconciliation is a process that has been used throughout history to form the world we live in today.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Peaceful Apartheid Fighter Desmond Tutu vs. Apartheid Apartheid-Legal segregation has been going on in South Africa for over a hundred years. When the British conquered them in 1910, South Africa had begun their journey down a road which Desmond Tutu has compared to Nazism. A law was passed in 1909 that took away most rights from the blacks, and over the years, they lost more and more rights, similar to Jews during the Holocaust. They first were not allowed to try for the qualifications needed for many jobs. A little while later, much of their land was taken away, which was later followed by their right to vote being restricted.…

    • 1364 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ‘The African National Congress (ANC) proved to be the pivotal activist group in overcoming Apartheid in South Africa.’…

    • 2116 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Desmond Tutu Cruelty Essay

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Path of Peace Cruelty takes shape in many forms. In South Africa, cruelty was displayed toward blacks during apartheid. The system of apartheid began in South Africa in 1948, when the National party came to power. It established a system of discrimination similar to the Jim Crow era in the United States. Apartheid was a law that prevented black South Africans from having the same rights and freedoms as white people(History page 1).…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    JODAC and the FFF participated in various campaigns such as “Christmas against the emergency,” and “101 ways to end apartheid.” This campaigns were centralised around uniting white opposition and preparing them for negotiations for a democratic and free South Africa.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics