Abstract
Having demonstrated in Chaps. 3–5 how the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission used the rhetorical mechanisms of transitional justice in an attempt to establish its authority, this chapter looks more broadly at the development of the field of transitional justice in the United States. It surveys several US-based initiatives to explore how the rhetorical tradition of transitional justice is being reaccentuated elsewhere in the country. Through this examination, it considers the place of transitional justice in liberal democracies, and it discusses the ramifications of the book’s central arguments for scholars and practitioners working in the field of transitional justice.
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Notes
- 1.
This book has focused primarily on the ways in which the GTCRP and GTRC reaccentuated the rhetorical resources of past truth commissions—and, in particular, of the SATRC. There were, however, other rhetorical traditions circulating in Greensboro during the operation of the GTRC, not all of which were consistent with those of the rhetorical tradition of transitional justice. As Murphy (1997) noted of rhetorical traditions more generally, “[T]here are layered and dissonant voices within and between traditions. Traditions ‘speak’ to each other and to pressing problems of the day. No one tradition can finalize the world or itself” (p. 73). Thus, one possible avenue for future research would be to consider the interplay between various traditions and how the GTCRP and GTRC orchestrated them (p. 74). Such work would benefit from a sustained exploration of the ways in which the GTCRP and GTRC drew upon the rhetorical traditions surrounding the civil rights movement, the practices of civil religion in the United States, and the research practices of the academy. It might also consider whether or not the reaccentuation of these traditions amplified or attenuated the effects of the rhetorical tradition of transitional justice.
- 2.
As Salazar(2002) illustrated with respect to the SATRC, the work of TRCs is often implicated in projects of nation building and democratization.
- 3.
Given the scope and focus of this book, I have chosen to limit my survey to initiatives that include the words “truth project,” “truth commission,” or “truth and reconciliation commission” in their titles. There have, of course, been other types of transitional justice initiatives as well. For example, in “A Sampling of Truth-seeking Projects in the United States,” Magarrell (n.d.) compiled a list that included—but was not limited to—national inquiries (e.g., the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs), state inquiries (e.g., the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 and the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission), and academic inquiries (e.g., the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice). Such initiatives are a fertile ground for future study.
- 4.
The Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights also collected statements in the United Kingdom and in Ghana.
- 5.
DeChaine quoted Deibert (1998, p. 35) here.
- 6.
DeChaine quoted Hall (1992, p. 302) here.
- 7.
Moreover, as Gready (2011) noted, instead of trying to negotiate multiple genres and methodologies, privileging “one genre tributary or form of truth” may help ensure that a truth commission’s products are not “fragmentary and mutually undermining” (p. 56).
- 8.
Similarly, Gready (2011) highlighted that the diffusion of the practices of transitional justice may not always have positive effects. In The Era of Transitional Justice, for example, he noted that testimonies from truth commission hearings that circulate beyond their immediate contexts may get appropriated by human rights discourse in ways that “erase” and “decontextualize” the stories (p. 79). “The reification of victimhood,” he continued, is “almost a condition of hearability,” leading to further marginalization of those who have testified (p. 79). Given that the reception of testimony “can easily create new contexts of vulnerability and violation,” Gready argued for “greater control for the testifier in the realms of representation, interpretation and dissemination” of his or her testimony (p. 82).
- 9.
Magarrell & Wesley (2008 ) wrote, “ [T]he fact that the ‘of fi cial ’ city engaged at all, even in this negative way, was an important part of the process of revealing the truth about November 1979 and its aftermath in the community. The process was so present in the community that it did matter, it could not be ignored. And despite the discomfort of the city ’they entered the dialogue about what the report and recommendations meant” (p. 174).
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Beitler, J.E. (2013). “Inescapable Networks of Mutuality”: The Development of Transitional Justice in the United States. In: Remaking Transitional Justice in the United States. Springer Series in Transitional Justice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5295-9_6
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