ICTJ in the News

July 19, 2001

Boraine Takes Lessons of SA Miracle to World

Cape Argus

Alex Boraine, former co-chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is heading a new International Centre for Transitional Justice in New York to help other countries deal with past human rights abuses, and reconcile perpetrators and victims.

Launched in March with a grant of $ 15 million from the Ford Foundation, the centre will give technical assistance, information and training, stimulate research, build networks of organisations and individuals working in the human rights field , and advise policy makers on transitional justice.

The centre will focus on strategies to document abuse or establish truth commissions, prosecute perpetrators, reform abusive institutions, provide reparations to victims of violence and promote reconciliation.

It will send missions to countries to train local roleplayers and help in crafting transitional justice policy.

The centre is already working in 13 countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Peru, Panama, Nigeria, Bosnia and Serbia.

In an interview published in the Cape Argus today, Boraine says South Africa's transition to democracy - and the work of the TRC, which formed a key part of it - had made a substantial impact internationally.

"Through the new centre in New York I feel I will be able to give back to the world community something of the investment and assistance that the world gave to us during our transition," he said.

The South African model could not be imposed on other countries, but they could learn a lot from the "lessons and mistakes" of the TRC.

He remained convinced that it was necessary to confront the past in order to build a stable and just future.

"Without (confronting the past), people will dwell on the resentments of the past," he said.

"It's in that sense that I often made the point that the TRC was about the future, not the past. You cannot create a future if you are constantly haunted by the past."