Download or read book Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa written by Hugo van der Merwe and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2008-02 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Of the truth commissions to date, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has most effectively captured public attention throughout the world and provided the model for succeeding bodies. Although other truth commissions had preceded its establishment, the TRC had a far more expansive mandate: to go beyond truth-finding to promote national unity and reconciliation, to facilitate the granting of amnesty to those who made full factual disclosure, to restore the human and civil dignity of victims by providing them an opportunity to tell their own stories, and to make recommendations to the president on measures to prevent future human rights violations.