ABSTRACT
If part of the function of truth commissions, and transitional justice measures in general, is to engage the public and generate debate, and these criteria constitute one means of evaluation, then the South African TRC was a significant, if qualified, success. In detailing its four categories of truth, the TRC stated, ‘it was in its search for social truth that the closest connection between the Commission’s process and its goal was to be found’ (1998, Vol. 1: 113). The process of the TRC was important in its own right:
because it was through this process that the essential norms of social relations between people were reflected. It was, furthermore, through dialogue and respect that a means of promoting transparency, democracy and participation in society was suggested as a basis for affirming human dignity and integrity.
