Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the end of Apartheid in the 1990s. In theory the commission granted amnesty to those charged with atrocities during Apartheid as long as the crimes were motivated by politics, and as long as the entire and utter truth were told by the charged person.

No one was exempt from being charged. As well as ordinary citizens, the South African police could be charged and, most notably, members of the African National Congress, the ruling party at the time of the trial, could also be charged.

The commission brought forth many witnesses giving testimony about the secret and immoral acts committed by the Apartheid Government that many say would not have come out into the open otherwise. Since this commission, similar commissions have sprung up in other countries, although not always with the same scope or the allowance for charging of those currently in power.

A film, Long Night's Journey Into Day[?], was made about the commission.