Description
Book SynopsisHuman rights violations leave deep scars on people, societies, and nations. Since the early 1990s, international rights groups have argued that resolving the violence of the past through instruments of transitional justice such as truth commissions is a necessary condition for a peaceful future. But how can nations ensure that these tribunals are the best path to reconciliation?
The Politics of Acknowledgement develops a theoretical framework of acknowledgement with which to evaluate truth commissions. Rather than applying this framework to successful tribunals, Joanna Quinn uses it to analyze the difficulties encountered and the ultimate failure of two poorly understood truth commissions in Uganda and Haiti. The failure of these commissions reveals that if reconciliation is to be achieved, acknowledgement of past violence and harm by both victims and perpetrators must come before goals such as forgiveness, social trust, civic engagement, and social cohesion.
Table of Contents1 Introduction
Part 1: Theoretical Model
2 The Politics of Acknowledgement
3 Truth Commissions
4 The Truth Commissions of Uganda and Haiti
Part 2: Analysis: Parallels between the Ugandan and Haitian Cases
5 Political Will
6 Institutional Constraints
7 Whither Acknowledgement?
8 Social Underpinnings
9 Acknowledgement: A New Lens for Evaluation
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index
