Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of cited Amnesty Committee hearing transcripts
- Frequently cited Amnesty Committee decisions
- List of abbreviations
- List of abbreviated cases
- List of figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The TRC-based Amnesty Scheme: Background and Overview
- 2 The Practice of the Committee When Making Decisions
- 3 The Committee's Interpretation of the Political Offence Requirement
- 4 The Concept of Full Disclosure
- 5 Truth Recovery in the Amnesty Process
- 6 Victim Empowerment in the Amnesty Process
- 7 Perpetrator Accountability in the Amnesty Process
- 8 Conditional Amnesty and International Law
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of cited Amnesty Committee hearing transcripts
- Frequently cited Amnesty Committee decisions
- List of abbreviations
- List of abbreviated cases
- List of figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The TRC-based Amnesty Scheme: Background and Overview
- 2 The Practice of the Committee When Making Decisions
- 3 The Committee's Interpretation of the Political Offence Requirement
- 4 The Concept of Full Disclosure
- 5 Truth Recovery in the Amnesty Process
- 6 Victim Empowerment in the Amnesty Process
- 7 Perpetrator Accountability in the Amnesty Process
- 8 Conditional Amnesty and International Law
- 9 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This study is an attempt to understand a particular process that appears capable of serving well the needs of a society emerging from a past marred by violent political conflict. Its foremost aim is to see whether the South African amnesty scheme does what it holds itself out as capable of doing – to deal with the perpetrators of politically motivated acts of violence in an acceptable and morally defensible manner by putting the truth on record, giving victims and other interested parties a chance for meaningful participation, and ensuring a sufficient degree of perpetrator accountability.
The study demonstrates the practical success of the amnesty scheme as manifested by its ability to attract relevant applications. This outcome was hardly a foregone conclusion. Those who had not already been convicted of, nor were under investigation for, crimes committed for political reasons, were initially very reluctant to apply. The application period had to be extended twice before these persons came forward. Eventually the amnesty scheme did attract large numbers of applicants, but only after a sufficient degree of trust in the amnesty system and a perception of the real possibility of prosecutions had arisen. Even then by no means everyone implicated in past acts of political violence applied for amnesty. In the case of extraterritorially committed crimes the fact that prosecution by the territorial state remained a possibility proved a strong disincentive (Chapter 1).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transitional Amnesty in South Africa , pp. 336 - 348Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007