Product Description

Unspeakable Truths is a profound, definitive exploration of truth commissions around the world, and the anguish, injustice, and the legacy of hate they are meant to absolve. After years of political turmoil, repression, and murder, then what? Truth commissions-official investigations into government crimes and misconduct are the only medicine a new government has to cure the diseases of the old regime. In Unspeakable Truths , world renowned expert Priscilla Hayner examines the twenty major truth commissions established around the world, paying special attention to South Africa, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala. As she explores the inner workings of these tribunals, Hayner finds that victims are torn between the need to remember and the need to forget. In the new post-Cold War order, the future of democracy and peace may rest on this debate. Unspeakable Truths moves through the murders, disappearances, and tragedies that characterized corrupt regimes like those of Idi Amin or August Pinochet, but Hayner handles these issues with grace and subtlety, using these stories and others to shine a light on the triumphs and shortcomings of past commissions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81301 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Back Cover

Nelson Mandela, freed from prison after twenty-seven years, found himself leading a country where the victims of apartheid now live side by side with their oppressors. How could the new South Africa survive? Mandela decided a truth commission would be the first step towards reconciliation, and, in 1995, he set government investigators to work examining the horrors perpetrated on both sides in the name of apartheid or equality. In Unspeakable Truths,Priscilla Hayner delivers a profound, definitive exploration of past truth commissions, and the anguish, the injustice, and the legacy of hate they are meant to absolve. She examines the twenty major truth commissions established around the world, paying special attention to South Africa, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala, where official investigations into the atrocities of the past seemed like the only medicine available to cure the symptoms developed under years of tyranny.
As she explores the inner workings of these tribunals, Hayner finds that victims are torn between the need to remember and the need to forget. In the new post-Cold War order, the future of democracy and peace may rest on this debate. For those concerned with the fate of democracy and freedom on the international stage, Unspeakable Truths is essential reading.

About the Author

Priscilla Hayner has consulted on truth commissions to many governments and organizations, including the US Institute of Peace, the United Nations, and the Ford Foundation. She has been featured in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. She lives in Brooklyn.