Alternative Responses to Serious Human Rights Abuses: Of Prosecution and Truth Commissions

1996 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Landsman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Alternative Responses

Accountability

2020 ◽  
pp. 258-286
Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Military Regimes ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
International Human ◽  
Sub Saharan

This chapter focuses on the major goal of the international human rights movement has been in securing accountability for grave abuses. It talks about “truth commissions” in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, several countries of Asia, Morocco, and Canada, which deals with abuses against the country's indigenous population. It also highlights the establishment of several international criminal tribunals in order to prosecute and punish those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The chapter explores accountability, which has become a central concern of the international human rights movement for the recognition or official acknowledgment of the suffering of victims of human rights abuses. It also analyzes the purpose of deniability, which made it possible for military regimes in that commit abuses to maintain a facadeof legality.

Policy-Oriented Jurisprudence and Human Rights Abuses in Internal Conflict: Toward a World Public Order of Human Dignity

1999 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegfried Wiessner ◽  
Andrew R. Willard
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Deterrent Effect ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Civil Compensation ◽  
Internal Conflicts ◽  
Major Incidents ◽  
Set Up

Real problems, like the problem posed, are not amenable to simple solutions. Human rights abuses in internal conflicts usually have roots deep in history and the collective psyche of the individuals and groups involved. To prevent them, the certain prospect of a swift punitive reaction on the international plane might have a useful deterrent effect. But if a violent conflict or genocide is in progress, the expectation of punishment may not by itself be likely to end the conflict. Ironically, it may prolong the plight of the persecuted, since persecutors may conclude that they have no alternative but to fight to the bitter end to avoid the consequences of their misdeeds. To deal with major incidents of unauthorized coercion and violence, an amnesty for the violators might contribute to a lessening of the toll in blood of a particular ethnic or religious rage. But that, again, might be an incomplete reaction, since the victims of the atrocities committed will not find solace, satisfaction or rehabilitation. Nor will persons who may be pathologically violent be removed from circulation. Where society remains unreconciled, jarred, conflicted—in a state of continual animosity between warring families, clans or ethnic, religious or social groups—“cold” war might heat up and erupt at any time in the future even more violently than before. Thus, truth commissions have been established in various contexts at least to shine the light of searching inquiry on situations in which truth has always been the first casualty. Still, such agencies alone might not suffice to bring about social reconciliation and restoration. Neither might bodies set up to mete out justice in the form of civil compensation. International criminal courts may send a message to people elsewhere contemplating massive violations, but they may do nothing to reconstruct the civil society that has been disrupted.

scholarly journals The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa: relation to psychiatric status and forgiveness among survivors of human rights abuses

2001 ◽  
Vol 178 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Kaminer ◽  
Dan J. Stein ◽  
Irene Mbanga ◽  
Nompumelelo Zungu-Dirwayi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Psychiatric Status ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThe impact on individual survivors of human rights abuses of testifying before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has not been established.AimsTo examine the degree to which participation in the TRC is related to current psychiatric status and forgiveness among survivors.MethodSurvivors (n=134) who gave public, closed or no testimony to the TRC completed instruments measuring exposure to human rights abuses, exposure to other traumatic events, current psychiatric status and forgiveness attitudes towards the perpetrator(s).ResultsThere was no significant association between TRC participation and current psychiatric status or current forgiveness attitudes, and low forgiveness was associated with poorer psychiatric health.ConclusionsTruth commissions should form part of, rather than be a substitute for, comprehensive therapeutic interventions for survivors of human rights abuses. Lack of forgiveness may be an important predictor of psychiatric risk in this population.

scholarly journals The Prospects for Customary Law in Transitional Justice: The Case of Fiji

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Joanna R Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Transitional Societies ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The People ◽  
Customary Practices

The use of customary law shows real promise in addressing the challenges that arise when confronting the legacies of past human rights abuses and atrocities.  Unlike typical transitional justice mechanisms like trials, truth commissions, and reparations programs, customary practices are community-based and well-known to the people who use them.  Indeed, customary practices could be used in transitional societies in place of “foreign” practices to bring about the same objectives.  This paper considers the role that customary law plays in Fiji.  It further assesses the prospects for the use of customary, traditional law in situations where transitional justice is called for.

Documents and Source Material

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Israeli Occupation

This section comprises JPS summaries and links to international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials from the quarter spanning 16 May-15 November 2017. Fifty years of Israeli occupation was the focus of reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Oxfam that documented the ongoing human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Other notable documents include Israeli NGO Gisha and UNSCO reports on the ten-year Gaza siege, Al Jazeera's interactive timeline of the Nakba, and an exchange of letters between the ACLU and U.S. senators on anti-BDS legislation.

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