ENGLISH

Transitional Amnesty in South Africa

Book information

Year
2008
ISBN
0521878292, 9780521878296, 9780511379062
LCC
DT1974.2 .D83 2007
Open Library ID
OL10438263M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (2793261 bytes)
Edition
1
Pages
420\419
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

After the transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa reached out to perpetrators of violence from all conflicting parties by giving amnesty to those who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes. This volume provides the first comprehensive analysis of South Africa's amnesty scheme in its practical and normative dimensions. Through empirical analysis of over 1,000 amnesty decisions made by the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the study measures the scheme against its stated goals of truth recovery, victim empowerment and perpetrator accountability. It also explores normative questions raised by the absence of punishment. Highlighting the distinctive nature of South Africa's conditional amnesty as an exceptional 'rite of passage' into the new, post-conflict society, it argues that the amnesty scheme is best viewed as an attempt to construct a new 'justice script' for a society in transition, in which a legacy of politically motivated violence is being addressed.

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