Transition, justice and truth : establishing a truth and reconciliation commission

The present thesis focuses on truth and reconciliation commissions, more specifically a process of their establishment trough observation of relationships between the State authorities/institutions and civil society organization. The question this thesis addresses is the question on a nature of relationships between the State and civil society organization in the establishment process. Building on examples of the truth and reconciliation commission’s establishment process in South Africa, Brazil and the RECOM Initiative, the thesis presents three relationships models between the State and civil society organizations. The case of South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a model of a State led establishment process which is characterized with the strong and genuine will of the State to establish a truth and reconciliation commission. The civil society organizations are participating in the process with know-how and expertise form the practice in dealing with the human rights abuses. This knowledge is used to build a mandate of a commission. The case of Brazilian National Truth Commission is a collaboration model where a State is reluctant to establish a truth and reconciliation commission and therefore the whole process is highly politicized. The civil society organization are not included to the process in genuine way, thus the result is a commission without strong support of the civil society and dubious strength of its mandate. The RECOM case is a model characterized by the ignorance and hostility for the State/s, while the whole process is designed and led by the civil society organizations. The civil society organizations do not have a partner in State institutions in order to build a mandate of a future commission. The three models are different from the perspective of conducting a cooperation process between a State and civil society organizations. However, they share a common feature suggesting that the role of civil society organizations is limited with a level of interests and will a State has for establishing a truth commission, or on a more general level, on a degree on which a society is willing to deal with the past violations of human rights.