The politics of truth and reconciliation in South Africa : legitimizing the post-apartheid state /
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| Author / Creator: | Wilson, Richard, 1964- |
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| Imprint: | Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001. |
| Description: | xxi, 271 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Cambridge studies in law and society |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4432742 |
| Summary: | The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to deal with the human rights violations of apartheid during the years 1960-1994. However, as Wilson shows, the TRC's restorative justice approach to healing the nation did not always serve the needs of communities at a local level. Based on extended anthropological fieldwork, this book illustrates the impact of the TRC in urban African communities in Johannesburg. While a religious constituency largely embraced the commission's religious-redemptive language of reconciliation, Wilson argues that the TRC had little effect on popular ideas of justice as retribution. This provocative study deepens our understanding of post-apartheid South Africa and the use of human rights discourse. It ends on a call for more cautious and realistic expectations about what human rights institutions can achieve in democratizing countries. |
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| Physical Description: | xxi, 271 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-262) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0521802199 0521001943 |
