Throughout history, coming to terms with widespread human rights abuses and atrocities is such a painful and protracted struggle politically, socially, and legally that people prefer to consign such events to the past and try to forget about them. In recent years, however, there has been a growing trend toward directly addressing such periods in countries' recent or not-so-recent histories as part of an effort to understand exactly what happened, assign culpability, and allow victims the opportunity to be heard. Many efforts center on so-called truth commissions, often modeled on South Africa's highly publicized Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That commission, in operation from 1994-98, gathered testimony about the abuses perpetrated during the country's repressive apartheid regime and began a process of national healing that continues to this day.
Today, similar commissions are operating in at least 10 countries throughout the world. The circumstances differ greatly, as do the commissions' specific goals and mandates, but they all seek to provide some sort of resolution in the wake of destructive periods in a country's history when its own citizens faced unusual oppression or abuse.
In 2001, a transnational organization that is an OSI grantee, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), was established in New York to "assist countries pursuing accountability for mass atrocity or human rights abuses." One of the center's most important roles in this behalf is to help governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) set up truth commissions and enable them to share information on an operational level, from database management to how a courtroom and trial system might be set up.
On December 4, 2002, top officials of three ongoing truth commissions spoke at a roundtable discussion at OSI's offices in New York. The three, from Peru, East Timor, and Ghana, discussed the history of their commissions and updated participants as to progress and goals.