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Historians and the South African Truth Commission
Author(s) -
Saunders Christopher
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00092.x
Subject(s) - commission , transitional justice , economic justice , political science , work (physics) , law , psychology , engineering , mechanical engineering
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has attracted a large literature, and is now widely hailed as a model of how to proceed with transitional justice in a post‐conflict situation. This article is not concerned with the working of the Commission, or what it contributed to reconciliation in South Africa, but considers why historians were not more involved in its work, and what their attitudes have been to the findings of the TRC. The importance of the vast archive that the TRC collected is emphasized, but it seems unlikely that access will be granted to this archive in the near future.