South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Coming on the heels of decades of apartheid, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation held landmark hearings that attempted to shine a light on years of abuse, violence and injustice. Rather than a Nuremberg-style tribunal that sought to punish those complicit in the various crimes of the preceding dark years, the Commission's focus was on amnesty and reconciliation — though those seeking forgiveness, both the agents of the apartheid state and those involved in anti-government militancy, would only receive it by telling the truth. Respected public figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu presided over the process, which was considered a vital part of South Africa's transition into a multi-ethnic democracy. The hearings, held across the country, proved to be painful, moving spectacles, with gripping and often blood-boiling testimony. Some critics of the TRC complained that, rather than amnesty, real justice ought to have been meted out, no matter how politically divisive it may have been. But the TRC model has become the darling of many legal policy makers in the international community, and subsequent TRC commissions building from South Africa's experience have sprung in over a dozen countries reckoning with their own traumatic, violent past.