Transitioning societies: South Africa and Argentina. How power dynamics impact the ‘contract for truth’

Jeremy Gunther

Authors

Jeremy Gunther Monash University

Keywords:

Transitional Justice, Amnesty, Reparations, Truth telling, Systems change, tools of analysis

Abstract

Both South Africa and Argentina have experienced tyrannical and oppressive periods of political leadership. Ultimately, this has led both nations to ask - how do we create a stable future, and how do we come to terms with the crimes of the past? This piece will look at the mechanisms that were employed by both countries throughout this process and the outcomes they achieved. More importantly though, it will frame the responses in a contract analogy. It will look to the ‘bargain’ struck between victims and perpetrators. It will then critically analyse the way that existing power structures shape this ‘bargain’ and how it impacts the extent and quality of truth, along with outcomes for victims.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Views 47
Downloads:
14(2)_Gunther_SZ 14

Author Biography

Jeremy Gunther, Monash University

Jeremy Gunther is a graduating student from Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia. He will graduate with a bachelor Law and Arts, and can be contacted by email at jeremy.gunther@outlook.com

References

Acuña, C., 2006. Transitional Justice in Argentina and Chile: A Never Ending Story? In: J. Elster, ed., Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy [online]. Cambridge University Press, 206–238. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511584343.014

Acuña, C., and Smulovitz, C., 1997. Guarding the Guardians in Argentina: Some Lessons about the Risks and Benefits of Empowering the Courts. In: A. McAdams, ed., Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies. University of Notre Dame Press, 94–122.

Barahona de Brito, A., and Sznajder, M., 2010. The Politics of the Past: The Southern Cone and Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective. South European Society and Politics [online], 15(3), 487–505. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2010.513607

Barahona de Brito, A., 1997. Justice in democratic transitions. Democratization, 4(4), 175–184.

Barahona de Brito, A., 2010. Transitional Justice and Memory: Exploring Perspectives. South European Society and Politics [online], 15(3), 359376. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2010.513599

Bell, C., 2009. Transitional Justice, Interdisciplinarity and the State of the ‘Field’ or ‘Non-Field’. International Journal of Transitional Justice [online], 3(1), 5–27. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijn044

Beresford, A., and Wand, D., 2020. Understanding bricolage in norm development: South Africa, the International Criminal Court, and the contested politics of transitional justice. Review of International Studies [online], 46(4), 534–554. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210520000224

Bubenzer, O., 2009. Post-TRC Prosecutions in South Africa: Accountability for Political Crimes after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Process [online]. Nijhoff: Brill. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004177031.i-260

Cassin, B., 2006. Removing the perpetuity of hatred. International Review of the Red Cross [online], 88(862), 235-244. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383106000506

Chisari, C., 2022. The Judicial Implementation of the Right to the Truth: Some Thoughts on the Argentine Experience of the Juicios por la Verdad. Union University Law School Review (Pravni Zapisi) [online], 13(3), 630–674. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5937/pravzap0-39985

Christopher, A., 1995. Land Restitution in South Africa, 1991–1994. Land Use Policy: The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use [online], 12(4), 267–279. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/0264-8377(95)00031-8

Cohen, S., 1995. State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past. Law & Social Inquiry [online], 20(1), 7–50. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/492497

Crenzel, E., 2008. Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons: Contributions to Transitional Justice. International Journal of Transitional Justice [online], 2(2), 173–191. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijn007

Crenzel, E., 2015. Genesis, Uses, and Significations of the “Nunca Más” Report in Argentina. Latin American Perspectives [online], 42(3), 20–38. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X15570875

Crenzel, E., 2016. Revisiting the origins of Argentina’s military junta trial: political, moral, and legal dilemmas of a transitional justice strategy. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies [online], 42(2), 144–164. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2017.1329062

Derrida, J., 2001. On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/978020

Dugard, J., 1997. Retrospective Justice: International Law and the South African Model. In: A. McAdams ed., Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies. University of Notre Dame Press, 269–290.

Evans, M., 2021. Land and the limits of liberal legalism: property, transitional justice and non-reformist reforms in post-apartheid South Africa. Review of African Political Economy [online], 48(107), 646–655. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2021.1987209

Farbsein, S., 2020. Perspectives From a Practitioner: Lessons Learned From the Apartheid Litigation. Harvard International Law Journal [online], 61(2), 451–509. Available at: https://journals.law.harvard.edu/ilj/2020/04/perspectives-from-a-practitioner-lessons-learned-from-the-apartheid-litigation/

Galis, T.P., 2015. Keeping the Wolves at Bay: Transitional Justice and Reform in Argentina, South Africa and Hungary. PhD Thesis. Worcester: Clark University.

Gargarella, R., 2003. In Search of a Democratic Justice: What Courts Should Not Do: Argentina, 1983–2002. Democratization [online], 10(4), 181–197. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13510340312331294087

Gibson, J., 2002. Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation: Judging the Fairness of Amnesty in South Africa. American Journal of Political Science [online], 46(3), 540–556. https://doi.org/10.2307/3088398

Gross, A., 2004. The Constitution, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice: Lessons from South Africa and Israel. Stanford Journal of International Law, 40(1), 47–104.

Hayner, P., 2011. Unspeakable truths: transitional justice and the challenge of truth commissions [online]. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203867822

Jenkins, C., 2000. After the Dry White Season: The Dilemmas of Reparation and Reconstruction in South Africa. South African Journal on Human Rights [online], 16(3), 415–485. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.2000.11827600

Laplante, L., and Theidon, K., 2007. Truth with Consequences: Justice and Reparations in Post-Truth Commission Peru. Human Rights Quarterly [online], 29(1), 228–250. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2007.0009

Little, D., 1999. A Different Kind of Justice: Dealing with Human Rights violations in Transitional Societies. Ethics & International Affairs [online], 13(1), 65–80. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00327.x

Maculan, E., 2012. Prosecuting International Crimes at National Level: Lessons from the Argentine ‘Truth-Finding Trials’. Utrecht Law Review [online], 8(1), 106–121. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18352/ulr.183

Mamdani, M., 2015. Beyond Nuremberg: The historical significance of post-apartheid transition in South Africa. Politics & Society [online], 43(1), 61–88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329214554387

McAuliffe, P., 2019. The Problem of Elites. In: M. Evans, ed., Transitional and Transformative Justice: Critical and International Perspectives [online]. Abingdon: Routledge, 77–99. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351068321-5

Merrett, C., and Gravil, R., 1991. Comparing Human Rights: South Africa and Argentina, 1976–1989. Comparative Studies in Society and History [online], 33(2), 255–287. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500017035

Moyo, K., 2015. Mimicry, Transitional Justice and the Land Question in Racially Divided Former Settler Colonies. International Journal of Transitional Justice [online], 9(1), 70–89. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/iju026

Naqvi, Y., 2006. The right to truth in international law: Fact or fiction. International Review of the Red Cross [online], 88(862), 245–273. Available at: https://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/a21923.pdf

Pedain, A., 2004. Was amnesty a lottery? An empirical study of the decisions of the truth and Reconciliation Commission’s committee on Amnesty. South African Law Journal, 121(4), 758–828.

Pityana, B., 2018. The truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa: perspectives and prospects. Journal of Global Ethics [online], 14(2), 194–207. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2018.1517819

Popkin, M., and Bhuta, N., 2012. Latin American Amnesties in Comparative Perspective: Can the Past Be Buried? Ethics & International Affairs [online], 13(1), 99–122. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.1999.tb00329.x

Pradier, A., Rubin, M., and van der Merwe, H., 2018 Between transitional justice and politics: Reparations in South Africa. South African Journal of International Affairs [online], 25(3), 301–321. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2018.1514528

Raleigh, A., 2019. Charging decisions, legal framing and transitional justice: the prosecution of Wouter Basson. South African Journal on Human Rights [online], 35(2), 194–218. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.2019.1619478

Roniger, L., 2011. Transitional Justice and Protracted Accountability in Re-democratised Uruguay, 1985-2011. Journal of Latin American Studies [online], 43(1), 693-724. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X11000459

Scorer, J., 2008. From La Guerra Sucia to ‘A Gentleman’s Fight’: War, Disappearance and Nation in the 1976–1983 Argentine Dictatorship. Bulletin of Latin American Research [online], 27(1), 43–60. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2007.00256.x

Sikkink, K., and Booth Walling, C., 2006. Argentina’s contribution to global trends in transitional justice. In: N. Roht-Arriaza and J. Mariezcurrena, eds., Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth vs. Justice [online]. Cambridge University Press, 301–324. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617911.015

Tutu, D., 2005. The Struggle for Social Justice in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Peace Research, 31(1), 109–112.

Wesson, M., and Du Plessis, M., 2008. Fifteen Years On: Central Issues Relating to the Transformation of the South African Judiciary. South African Journal on Human Rights [online], 24(2), 187–213. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/19962126.2008.11864952

Wilson, S., 2001. The Myth of Restorative Justice: Truth, Reconciliation and the Ethics of Amnesty. South African Journal for Human Rights [online], 17(4), 531–562. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.2001.11827638