An evaluation of human rights abuses and reconciliation of the past in Nigeria 1966 -1999 - Research Proposal Example

The formation of Truth Commissions to achieve transitional justice has been in vogue during the recent years, especially after the formation of the South African Truth Commission in 1996. The popularity that this South African TC achieved after the submission of its completed report in 1998 evoked much interest in the various academic circles and the human rights groups. It was hoped that this new process could be used in various transitional societies, for holding accountable those individuals that in the past took part in various deplorable acts of human rights abuse; while also assuring the victims of some sort of relief and justice.

This chapter will mainly focus on the concept of Truth Commissions (TCs), its background history, and the contribution/ non-contribution of the Truth Commissions to the transitional societies, mainly in the African context. Background history There is no doubt that the formation of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) have become fashionable after the 1998 South African TC, and is now seen as an instrument to make a memorabilia of an authoritarian past, which is replete with political repression and violent human rights abuse.

It has become the centre point for the transitional justice stratagem, and by 2003, we find that there were more than 25 TRCs formed worldwide.