Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies (The RIREC Project on Post-Accord Peace Building)

About this book

Confronting the past has become an established norm for countries undergoing transitions from violence to peace from authoritarianism to democracy or both. This book draws from two bodies of literaturepeace building and transitional justiceto examine whether truth-telling mechanisms can contribute to sustainable peace and if so how and under what conditions. The authors approach these questions by examining whether truth telling contributes to the following elements all of which are deemed to be constitutive of sustainable peace: reconciliation human rights gender equity restorative justice the rule of law the mitigation of violence and the healing of trauma. While the transitional-justice literature appears to have grasped the importance of truth telling for securing sustainable peace few studies have undertaken empirical analysis and evaluations of the long-term impact of such mechanisms. Contributors to this interdisciplinary volumefrom the fields of political science law anthropology psychology philosophy and theologyaccomplish that by closely examining how societies emerging from violence must in some way examine acknowledge and account for violence committed in the past in order to move forward.