Hamber, B. (1995). Do sleeping dogs lie?: The psychological implications of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Summary

The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Bill has been signed into law which allows for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa. The purpose of the TRC is to facilitate a truth recovery process that is aimed at reconciling with the past. It is envisaged that this process of reconciliation will occur through establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of past human rights abuses. The so-called “victims” of these abuses will be located and allowed to relate their stories so as to restore their human and civil dignity. Thereafter, the TRC aims to make amends to these individuals through the granting of reparations and rehabilitative measures. Furthermore, the TRC intends to enhance reconciliation by granting amnesty to perpetrators of human rights abuses who fully disclose the political crimes they committed. The TRC will also compile a comprehensive report of past abuses and the report will make recommendations on how such events can be prevented from occurring again.

The TRC process is intended to serve numerous social and legal functions like the re-establishment of the rule of law, the building of faith in institutions that have been discredited in the past and the restoration of a human rights culture in South Africa. This, however, will largely depend upon factors like political legitimacy, dealing with the controversial issues of granting amnesty, an efficient documentation system and the competent running of the process. Most of the papers and debates thus far have emphasised these factors and compared the South African process to international commissions, primarily from a legal perspective. However, on a psychological level the impact of the TRC on individuals and the society as whole has only been explored in a limited way (Hamber, 1995). In several papers (Asmal, 1992; Boraine, Levy & Scheffer, 1994; Simpson, 1994; Simpson & van Zyl, 1995) the truth recovery process and its ability to contribute to reconciliation with the past has been highlighted, however, a more detailed account of how this process may operate on a psychological level has not been explored.

This paper, therefore, explores how the process of a TRC could operate as psychologically rehabilitative mechanism. It focuses on the potentially numerous traumatised individuals who will come into contact with the TRC and their likely experience of the process. The core argument is that the TRC is not a sufficient process in itself to promote individual and collective psychological rehabilitation and that a range of psychological structures and strategies will be needed to run parallel to the TRC. Types of structures are suggested and the psychological implications of truth and reconciliation process highlighted throughout.