Intertexts

Intcrttxts, Vol. 7. No. 2, 2003 ATruth Commission for the United States? Andrew Vails O R E G O N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y Truth commissions have become afamiliar feature of the political landscape. Theyhavebeenadoptedinawiderangeofcircumstancesandserveanarray of purposes—among them the shaping of cultural memory. In this article, I focus on truth commissions as an instrument of transitional justice, and their role in creating the conditions for ajust reconciliation after aperiod of human rights abuses. Under such conditions, truth commissions can play a central role in the acknowledgment of the wrongs of the past, which in turn can be crucial to moving beyond these wrongs.The main point of the pres¬ ent article is that these considerations apply to the United States, and, in particular, to problems of racial justice with respect toAfricanAmericans. The history of racism in this country remains largely unacknowledged, as do itseffectsonthepresent.Thesefactshavedoneagreatdealtowarpthepub¬ lic’s perception of the realities of race in the United States, and have under¬ minedthesupportforpoliciesthatwouldbenecessarytoaddresstheprob¬ lems of racial injustice. Something like aSouthAfnca-style Truth and I^conciliation Commission, then, may be necessary to complete our transi¬ tionfromourracistpast,andtoreframeissuesofraceinawaythatwould allow us to effectively address those issues. The Idea of Transitional Justice Transitionaljusticeasafieldofstudyhasemergedinthelasttenyearsorso, response to the large number of political transitions that recently have occurredaroundtheworld.Often,thesepoliticaltransitionsinvolvesoci¬ etiesthatwerecharacterizedbythewidespreadviolationofbasichuman rights and democratic norms. This is true in many of the transitions from military and authoritarian regimes in LatinAmerica, from communist regimesinEasternEuropeandtheformerSovietUnion,andfromapartheid to democracy in South Africa. ^ One of the main questions facing societies in transition is whether and howtoaddresstheabusesofthepast.Ofcourse,oneapproachistoadopta policy that ignores these abuses and their present-day effects. That is, one imagine an entirely forward-looking approach to transitional justice, one that does not attempt to directly address the past at all. However, in most cases, this approach would be neither successful nor just, for at least two rea¬ sons. First, the abuses of the past raise issues of justice that, if unaddressed, threaten the new regime. In the realm of criminal justice, if the perpetrators suffer no consequences for their actions, this is asignificant violation of the m c a n I N T E R T E X T S 1 5 8 norms of the rule of law. With regard to distributive justice, past human rights abuses often have material effects, in terms of the distribution of wealth and income, and these too must be addressed and remedied if the injustices of the previous regime are not to create new injustices in the emerging regime. Failure to address the injustices of the past, then, is often seen as constituting adistinct and ongoing injustice. Closely related to these issues are questions of symbolism and culture that, while less tangible or quantifiable, are equally important to successful transition. Victims of the previous regime, their families, and the social groups that were targeted remember the abuses of the past, and this memo¬ ry often creates resentment that, if unaddressed, is carried over into the new regime and undermines its legitimacy. The abuses of the past often create a culture of mistrust among the targeted groups and in society in general. For this reason, transitional societies usually find it necessary to publicly acknowledge the past abuses and to explicitly reject them. This often involves anumber of symbolic measures intended to signal abreak with, and rejection of, the previous regime. The consensus that has emerged among scholars of transitional justice supports, Ibelieve, the idea that measures such as these are required for a just transition.Admittedly, differing national circumstances often dictate dif¬ ferences in approach. Sometimes, there appears to be atrade-off among transitional measures, as when discovering the truth requires forgoing some prosecution. There may also be trade-offs between transitional measures themselves and other considerations, such as the achievement of anegotiat¬ ed transfer of power. Nevertheless, under most circumstances some combi¬ nation of prosecution, compensation, and acknowledgment is required for a just regime transition. ^ Focusing on acknowledgment, there is awide range of measures that can be enacted as part of aregime transition that can serve the goal of acknowledging the past. Memorials and monuments honoring the victims of the past regime...