Using an inductive methodology based on one key component of transitional justice-namely, truth commissions-African Truth Commissions and Transitional Justice attempts to place them within the context of other elements such as trials of human rights abusers, the strengths and weaknesses of amnesty, and the importance of memorialization.
TRC's are a world wide phenomenon stretching from South Africa, Sierra Leone, and El Salvador to Timor-Leste. Dr. Imani Michelle Scott and her colleagues have even recently proposed a TRC for the United States (Crimes Against Humanity, Praeger). John Perry and Debey Sayndee do a wonderful job of outlining the importance of the TRCs for post peace accord peacebuilding as well as their strengths and limitations. African Truth Commissions and Transitional Justice is an important read for transitional justice scholars and students as well as international policymakers, IGOs, and NGOs tasked with rebuilding the fabric of broken societies so that ethnopolitical groups often historically locked in a fatal embrace can heal, reconcile, move on, and coexist.