ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how transitional justice processes incorporate a gender perspective that is how the categories of women, gender and feminism have been included in its mechanisms and procedures. According to Michael Humphrey, truth commissions are composed of two distinct elements: the process and the product. It is important to bear in mind that the process of establishing the truth takes place in the hearings and that it is here where sexual and gender-based violence is articulated or silenced. Even though it is difficult to identify particular phases regarding the changing normative framework of truth commissions, a cursory look at truth commissions after South Africa's first inclusion of sexual crimes illustrates the rising awareness of women and gender. The Sierra Leonean Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) mandate explicitly stated that the commission should work to help restore the human dignity of victims and promote reconciliation and that it should pay special attention to the subject of sexual abuses.
