Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ghana. National Reconciliation Commission'

"It is noted that special measures are always necessary in post-conflict situations to bring about the restoration of normalcy to societies. Truth commissions have been identified as a key to uniting, reconciling and helping the people to confidently deal with their past. Whilst these are noble notions, practically, truth commissions face serious challenges. The dissertation shall seek to highlight these problems and offer recommendations. ... The dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction. It gives a brief political history of Ghana and South Africa and their impact on the enjoyment of human rights. The chapter shall also discuss the need for national reconciliation in both countries. Chapter two discusses truth commissions in contemporary societies. It briefly discusses the establishment of national reconciliaton commissions and their mandates. Chapter three focuses on the laws establishing the TRC and NRC of South Africa and Ghana respectively. These legislation shall be considered in detail in order to analyse their objectives to know whether or not thet are achievable within their stated mandates. Chapter four discusses the challenges truth commission poses to international law and its implications on rule of law. The chapter shall discuss the issue of amnesty to perpetrators of gross human rights and the perpetuation of the culture of impunity in the light of international law. Chapter five considers the way forward and suggest recommendations." -- Chapter 1.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2003.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

The research investigates in what extent and how communication for meeting feelings is provided in Truth Commission work. It examines if and in what way feelings are addressed in the communication officially published by the Truth Commissions in East Timor, Ghana and Sri Lanka, occurring between 2002-2011. The research is also looking at the healing processes in a time perspective to find out if there is a communication for Societal healing to be continued in a longer term. My conclusion is that two cases of three in my research, the TRCs in Ghana and East Timor, have communication clearly directed to meet feelings caused by the war. One of the three cases (East Timor) has a communication with a clear ambition to heal over a longer period, to continue after the existence of the Truth Commission. The research suggests that communication with a clear ambition to reach out widely in the society, a communication directed to meet and process feelings over a longer period, can make Societal healing more effective. It also concludes that, in the future, Societal healing, as a field in conflict resolution, will be more based on representational media than today, provided through web communication.

Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure)
This is a study of Zimbabwe's National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Bill (hereafter NPRC Bill). The NPRC Bill seeks to bring the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (hereafter NPRC) of Zimbabwe into operation. The NPRC is a truth commission set to promote post-conflict justice, national peace and reconciliation in Zimbabwe. The study discusses the prospects of establishing an effective NPRC in Zimbabwe by examining the provisions of the NPRC Bill. The view of the paper is that, without proper guidance from a comprehensive law, the NPRC is bound to be a victim of its own failure.

Transitional justice (TJ) in Zimbabwe can be gleaned as a maze of detached filaments mainly championed by civil society organisations. Though the origins of TJ as a discipline are polemic and debatable, going as far back as Athenian times, TJ was visibilised in the 1990s during the third wave of democratisation, when it developed globally as a self-consolidating field and transdisciplinary concept which focused on outcomes such as prosecution, truth-telling, guarantees for non-recurrence, vetting, and the payment of reparations for victims of conflicts. The traditional focus of TJ was largely template-based or some kind of one-size-fits-all concept which focused on truths and reconciliation concepts. Significantly for victims of violent conflicts, repressive rule and serious human rights abuses, the emerging approach to TJ at the United Nations (UN) and regional institutions such as the African Union (AU) and institutions such as African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has been to focus on country-specific, localised, and holistic approaches that enhance transformative transitional justice in countries striving to find lasting solutions to deep problems caused by armed conflicts or serious human rights violations. While there is a robust nexus between human rights, democracy, and TJ, the link is weaker for TJ as it remains an elusive concept in Zimbabwe. Besides, TJ efforts yield different considerations and impacts on racialised, ethnicised, politicised, and institutionalised challenges in Zimbabwe. In most cases, the elusive nature of TJ is felt by victims, their family members, community dwellers, community-based organisations, and faith-based organisations than alleged perpetrators. TJ is perceived in this thesis to be a critical concept that should be properly aligned with internationalised and localised responses. This thesis shows that international agencies now recognise and essentialise the important roles that national institutions (formal or informal), can play in preventing the occurrence and/or recurrence of conflicts and can also play in fostering sustainable cultures of human rights. Specifically, the thesis covers examination of how institutional complementarity between two independent institutions supporting democracy in Zimbabwe; the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) can be innovatively used to enable the Zimbabwean society to formalise transitional or post-conflict justice using the Constitution and international normative frameworks. The overarching research question in this thesis is: what are the main challenges/limitations and opportunities/openings for the ZHRC and the NPRC to advance TJ in Zimbabwe? The specific research questions are 1. What does the international and national TJ normative framework entail and what is its theoretical force? 2. What constitutes a genuinely contextualised and holistic transitional justice in Zimbabwe? 3. How innovative have the NPRC and ZHRC been in making TJ a reality in Zimbabwe? 4. How can the Zimbabwean TJ framework be improved constitutionally, statutorily, and in practice? In this milieu, adherence to the normative principles of domestic constitutionalism, rule of law and human rights is essential to advance TJ and in identifying victims and most affected groups. The NPRC and ZHRC should thus be innovative in utilising international normative frameworks and aligning them with their constitutional mandates that speak to TJ. Sadly though, the NPRC and ZHRC are yet to align their mandates or work to international frameworks. The thesis concludes with an emphasis on the need for a coherent and transformative TJ policy that is informed by the root causes of societal problems in Zimbabwe: racial, ethnic, economic, political, doctrinal, pandemic-induced and so forth. Through constitutionally-established institutional independence, the NPRC, ZHRC and other Chapter 12 institutions supporting democracy in Zimbabwe must thrive on public legitimacy, confidence, and trust to promote dialogic democratisation and democratic consolidation which also recognise that the victim’s voice in TJ initiatives must be prioritised. Lethargic governance, toxic politics and confidence deficits should be addressed from a human rights as well as transformative TJ perspective. Ultimately, the TJ outcomes expected in this thesis should help Zimbabweans fully reconcile, achieve total peace, and move towards permanent healing. A context-sensitive and coherent TJ should be seen as a precious fruit of the normative frameworks espoused by the Constitution and regionalised or globalised TJ frameworks. Keywords Independent institutions, reconciliation, healing, peace, human rights institutions, holistic approaches, context-sensitive transitional justice, transformative justice.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
Canon Collins
Centre for Human Rights
PhD
Unrestricted

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of the Uganda Human Rights Commission UHRC), which possesses judicial powers vis-à-vis the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice of Ghana (CHRAJ) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) which do not possess such powers. The difference notwithstanding, all the three have been rated as the best national institutions in Africa. Due to time and space constraints, one will focus specifically with the mandates of the three commissions and in particular, on the different or distinct mandates assigned to them, namely, that of CHRAJ to deal with corruption, that of SAHRC to deal with economic, cultural and social rights and UHRC of dealing with torture matters and generally of constituting a tribunal. This study was motivated by the fact that Lesotho will be setting up a national institution in 2008 and one would like to draw lessons from these institutions and pick up elements that could best suit Lesotho.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007.
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Prof Kofi Quashigah of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

Masters of Art
At a lecture presented in London on June 5, 1994, Jacques Derrida discussed the complexities of the meaning of the archive. He described the duality in meaning of the word archive-in terms of temporality and spatiality-as a place of "commencement" and as the place "where men and gods command" or the ''place from which order is given". As the place of commencement, "there where things commence" the archive is more ambivalent. It houses, what could best be described as 'traces" of particular objects of the past in the form of documents. These documents were produced in the past and are subjective constructions with their own histories of negotiations and contestations. As such, the archive represents the end of instability, or the outcome of negotiations and contestations over knowledge. Yet as sources of evidence the archive also represents the moment of ending instability, of creating stasis and the fixing of meaning and knowledge.

During Apartheid, the history subject in South African national education and the use of history served as fuel both for apartheid as well as for counterhistoriography. Afterthe 1994 elections, the official debate used phrases like "reconciliation through truth" and "knowledge about the past" in order to"move on". The national institution the Truth and Reconciliation Commission advocated a shared understanding of the past for promoting reconciliation. Considering historiography’s earlier contested use, one might expect the history subject in post-apartheid national education would be emphasised as very important, serving as an important tool for the general shaping of South African identity.

Earlier research as well as my own study, has shown that this is not the case. From the viewpoint of history teachers in South African schools and through various documents on South African post-apartheid education, it seems that the major shift in South African education is the one to an outcome-based approach (OBE). The approach and the new Curriculum (C2005) seem, in fact, have minimised the history subject to the extent that it is no longer a subject in its own right. In addition, the new Curriculum does not list a specific content, which allows the individual teacher large freedom to teach as much or as little about the past as they like. Moreover, what have been emphasised are subjects like science and technology, as well as learning practical skills of "constitutional value". In addition, phrases like "the new patriotism" and "allegiance to the flag" seems to be a recent way to create and promote a shared South African identity.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA
The buzzword in recent development policy-making is PM&E. The notion is that; participatory approaches have the appropriate remedy to curb the problem of exclusion. That notwithstanding, the approach has become rhetoric in certain quarters rather than practical as admitted by some scholars who hold the principle in high esteem. Inferences from the concept of empowerment as put forward by Narayan (2005), might be the premise for rethinking the debate surrounding the inclusion of beneficiaries in participatory monitoring and evaluation because of its undulation positive effect on project outcomes. Over the past two decades, Ghana has initiated and implemented a good number of national policies and strategies that are youth-centered. The majority of these youth programmes are usually delineated in most public policies on thematic areas such as employment, education, health, among many others. A total of 120 respondents (project beneficiaries) were randomly selected for questionnaire administration, and 1 in-depth interviewed was conducted for this study. Using a Participation Perception Index (PPI), developed to assess the youth perception of the extent to which they were involved in the PM&E, the following were ascertained. It was evident that the youth were only made to actively participate in the data collection (as respondents) process. Evidently, the primary objective of the implementing agency was to secure the youth (beneficiaries) job rather than involving them in the project PM&E. The qualitative analysis also highlighted other critical factors affecting both the implementing agency and the youth (skills or know-how, cost, lack of beneficiaries' interest, non-existence of beneficiaries' associations) to ensure active participation. The study concluded that the end goal of the youth intervention programme is tied into the ideas of project sustainability which can be achieved when the various stakeholders are all on board in the PM&E.

Magister Artium - MA
In 1987 Ntombikayise Priscilla Kubheka was abducted, tortured, killed and her body dumped by apartheid security police. She was an uMkhonto WeSizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), commander based in Durban and was in charge of weaponry storage and organised safe houses for those returning from exile. Amnesty applications and perpetrator testimony given at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) amnesty hearings alleged that Kubheka had died, while being interrogated, from a heart attack. The perpetrators claimed the heart attack was possibly as a result of Kubheka being overweight. In 1997 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) exhumed skeletal remains and items of clothing, including a floral dress, from a pauper grave in Charlottedale cemetery, Groutville. The exhumed skull indicated a bullet wound. The post-mortem and numerous forensic examinations confirmed the identification of the skeletal remains to be those of Kubheka. The forensic examinations of the items of clothing confirmed the findings of the skeletal examinations in establishing identification. These forensic examinations and its findings contested testimony given by the perpetrators. Through the TRC investigations and its findings, a question of what it may mean to re-humanise the once missing emerges. This mini-thesis underscores a notion of re-humanisation through the work of the TRC in its investigation into the enforced disappearance of Kubheka. It suggests that figuring Kubheka through a notion of re-humanisation in the context of the TRC requires one to understand both de-humanisation and re-humanisation and the ways in which gender complicates these understandings. It does so by examining testimonies, t he exhumation, the forensic examinations, the emergence of a forensic aesthetic and the productions of biographies and forensic memory to understand how these might be processes and strategies of re-humanisation. This mini-thesis then is a forensic history that navigates a politics of the dead by examining the figuring of Kubheka through various fields and in various forums. In so doing, the argument presented in what follows is that the notion of re-humanisation is an inherently unstable one but at its core is a politics of the dead that misses gender it its figuring of the human.
2023-12-01

"Although the United Nations (UN) has often been pivotal in forging the international response to serious human rights crimes in such settings, the justice gap in countries such as the Democratic Republic [of] Congo (DRC) (the focus of this study) underscores the need for more systematic UN efforts. The war in the DRC has resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis with over 3.4 million displaced persons scattered throughout the country. An estimated 3.5 million people have died as a result of the war. The armed conflict has been characterised by appalling widespread and systematic human rights violations, including mass killings, ethnic cleansing, rape and the destruction of property. The most pressing need to be addressed is the question of justice and accountability for these human rights atrocities in order to achieve a durable peace in the country and also in the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Angola and the DRC, to name just a few). In this respect, this study will address the grave human rights violations committed in the DRC and the mechanisms for dealing with them. It is particularly true in post-conflict situations where justice systems have been either partially or completely destroyed, that national courts are not capapble of arriving at a uniform stance, or willing to provide justice for atrocities in the immediate future. As a result, international justice seems to be a crucial and last resort that must continue to be fortified against efforts to undermine it. ... Chapter one will set out the content of the research, identify the problem and outline the methodology. Chapter two will discuss the state obligations in international law to prosecute gross violations of human rights and gives a summary of the human rights violations situation during the Congolese war. Chapter three will discuss the available naitonal mechanisms for accountaiblity in the DRC. It will discuss if national courts and TRC are able to deal with these atrocities committed in the DRC. Chapter four will analyse the extent to which the ICC could deal with the Congolese case and challenges. Chapter five will discuss the trends towards accountability in the DRC and the way forward. Chapter six will draw a conclusion on how to break the cycle of impunity in the DRC." -- Introduction.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004.
Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Boukongou Jean Didier and Dr. Atangcho Akonumbo at the Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html
Centre for Human Rights
LLM

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The creation of the National Truth Commission represents another step in the long 'dealing with the past' process developed by the Brazilian State together with the victims of the military dictatorship, their families and the society. According to Act 12.528/2011, the main objective of the commission is to clarify the facts and circumstances of gross human rights violations that occurred during the period of time set forth in article 8 of the Transitory Constitutional Provisions Act (i.e. from September 18th, 1946, to October 5th, 1988), which is believed to ensure the effectiveness of the right to historical truth and memory, and shall promote national reconciliation. At first, this essay cares to clarify how the search for truth is related to the reconciliation goal, since one of the explicit goals of the National Truth Commission is to promote national reconciliation. To that end, it begins with a short description of the historical context of the Brazilian State’s reckoning process, concerning its past of state violence, so characteristic of a military dictatorship. Next, it will present the difficult aspects of working with concepts as complex as 'truth' and 'reconciliation', with the proposition of a meaning of national reconciliation for Brazil, taking into account a perspective that prioritizes the acknowledgment of past abuses and rebuilding of civic trust in the State. The final part of the essay addresses the issue of empirically assessing the truth commissions’ impacts, highlighting the inherent difficulties to this process and questioning the unreflective use of justifications that advocate the establishment of such mechanism.
A criação da Comissão Nacional da Verdade representa mais uma etapa do longo processo de acerto de contas desenvolvido pelo Estado brasileiro junto às vítimas da ditadura militar, às suas famílias e à sociedade. Pela redação da Lei n. 12.528/2011, a comissão tem como seu objetivo principal esclarecer os fatos e as circunstâncias dos casos de graves violações de direitos humanos ocorridos no período fixado no art. 8º do Ato das Disposições Constitucionais Transitórias (ou seja, de 18 de setembro de 1946 a 05 de outubro de 1988), o que se acredita irá garantir a efetividade do direito à memória e à verdade histórica e promoverá a reconciliação nacional. Este trabalho se preocupa, num primeiro momento, em esclarecer como a busca da verdade está relacionada ao objetivo de reconciliação, já que uma das finalidades explícitas da Comissão Nacional da Verdade é promover a reconciliação nacional. Para tanto, inicialmente é apresentada uma breve contextualização histórica do processo de acerto de contas do Estado brasileiro quanto ao passado de violência estatal característico da ditadura militar. Em seguida, serão apresentadas as dificuldades em trabalhar com conceitos tão abertos como 'verdade' e 'reconciliação', sendo proposto um significado de reconciliação nacional para o Brasil, por uma perspectiva que prioriza o reconhecimento dos abusos do passado e a reconstrução da confiança cívica no Estado. Passada essa parte mais teórica, a parte final do trabalho aborda a questão da verificação empírica dos impactos das comissões da verdade, destacando as dificuldades inerentes a esse processo e questionando a utilização irrefletida de justificativas que defendem a instauração desse mecanismo.

Western archival institutions have both silenced and misrepresented Indigenous peoples in Canada for more than a century. These actions have in turn assisted in the colonization and subjectification of a myriad of Indigenous communities within the colonial construct of Canada. This institutional complicity in the colonization process has recently come under fire. Questions have arisen about how these institutions can be decolonized and how they can be used in partnership with Indigenous peoples to strengthen the Indigenous voices they once silenced. The institutional decolonization of archives becomes especially important when the archival institution in question has been given the responsibility to care for records that relate to gross human rights abuses perpetrated against Indigenous peoples. This is the case for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba, which has a mandate to preserve and share the truths of Residential School Survivors.
May 2017

This study is an attempt to critique the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission from a theological ethical perspective. The central critique and argument of this study will be that, it is impossible to reconcile the dispossessor and the dispossessed or the oppressor and oppressed in the way the South African TRC did. As such, it will be befitting to start off this study which explores some of the noticeable lessons and challenges emerging from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (hereafter, the TRC) by elucidating that this study is an attempt to contribute to the on-going discussions on reconciliation. It is also vital to mention up front that this study attempts to contribute to the discussion on reconciliation which seeks to remove injustice at the root. It contributes to a discussion of the weeds of alienation and fragmentation, and it stands in contrast to the frequent use of reconciliation merely to reach some political accommodation and not to address the critical questions of justice, equality and dignity (Boesak & DeYoung 2012). It is also befitting to point out that two central themes – political pietism and Christian quietism – form the backdrop to this study (Boesak & DeYoung 2012). The study contends that reconciliation in South Africa was used merely to reach some political accommodation and did not address the three critical questions of justice, equality and dignity. These arrangements perpetually favour the rich and powerful but deprive the powerless of justice and dignity. Hitherto, this reconciliation is presented as if it does respond to the need for genuine reconciliation and employs a language that sounds like the truth, but it is in fact deceitful – and this we call political pietism. It is also vital to mention that “reconciliation” is a Christian concept, and as such, Christians’ measure matters of reconciliation with the yardstick of the gospel and therefore should know better. However, as it will be shown in this study, when Christians in South Africa discovered that the TRC was not really promoting reconciliation, they became complicit in a deceitful reconciliation. This may have been for reasons of self-protection, fear or a desire for acceptance by the powers that govern the world. Whichever way one looks at it, they tried to seek to accommodate the situation, to justify it and to refuse to run the risk of challenge and prophetic truth telling. As a result, they denied the demands of the gospel and refused solidarity with the powerless and oppressed. This is called Christian quietism (Boesak & DeYoung 2012:1). This study in its attempt to critique the South Africa TRC from a theological ethical perspective will point out that, the TRC which was obviously the product of the negotiated settlement needs to be understood against the background of the global struggle of particularly Third-World countries which were resisting authoritarian regimes put in place by the West for the benefit of the West. As such, this study will point out how the West, in their attempt to keep a grip on the Third-World countries – particularly on their resources – had to recommend and promote their notion of democracy. Democracy became the only option for Third-World countries as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union. It must, however, be mentioned that the problem is not democracy but the manifestation thereof under capitalism. This is because the notion of democracy was recommended to Third-World countries when capitalism was becoming global. As such, this presented some contradictions because democracy emphasizes joint interests, equality and common loyalties whilst capitalism is based on self-seeking inequality and conflicting individual and group interest (Terriblanche 2002). This means that a transition to democracy (especially constitutional democracy) means that the former oppressor or dispossessor will hold on to economic power. As such, the sudden interest of both the NP and the corporate sector in South Africa to a transition to democracy needs to be understood against this background. This study will argue and demonstrate how the ANC was outsmarted during the negotiations in that, at the formal negotiations, the ANC won political power whilst the NP/corporate sector in South Africa won economic power. This is mentioned to here to point out that both the elite compromise reached at the formal and informal negotiations and the influence of the Latin-American truth commissions led to the inability or unwillingness of the TRC to uncover the truth about systemic exploitation. As such, this study will argue and demonstrate that, on the one hand, reconciliation was not added to the truth commission for the purpose of confronting the country with the demands of the gospel and, on the other hand, the TRC was set up (from its inception) for failure.
Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology
D.Th. (Theological Ethics)

Dissertação de mestrado em Relações Internacionais
One characteristic of postmodern democratic reading of citizenship is the idea of the citizen as politically, socially, culturally, ecologically empowered and active. A complete citizen is thus one who enjoys his/her freedoms and rights, who fulfils his/her civic obligations, and who has equal opportunities to enhance his/her skills as a multifaceted individual. Within such rationale, the result of this citizen’s action shall be stronger and better democracy in an inclusive society where human rights are effectively respected. Ghana´s democracy is young and continuously defied by complex challenges. Among such challenges, there are traditional cultural and socio-political sets of beliefs and practices that conflict with the common practices of Western democracy. In this work, we argue that although citizenship in Ghana has made some improvements over the last decades, its construction and enhancement as a policy and as a set of social and cultural experiences still face severe constraints. The constraints are mostly caused by the prevalence of embedded traditions regarding the conception of power structuring and of power relations, which limit the development of democratic practices in the management of citizenship. Until these bottlenecks have been removed, citizenship will keep close to inequalities and abuse of human rights (especially of the most vulnerable, such as women, children, and the physically challenged), reflecting more the prevalence of traditional logics of power, than of democratic values in favour of human dignity. In light of this, we argue, education for a new understanding of citizenship is a fundamental path.
Uma característica da leitura democrática pós-moderna da cidadania é a ideia do cidadão como um ser politicamente, socialmente, culturalmente, economicamente e ecologicamente capacitado e ativo. O cidadão completo é aquele que goza e desfruta dos seus direitos e liberdades, que cumpre o seu dever cívico e tem oportunidade para aperfeiçoar, promover, melhorar e reforçar os seus dotes, as suas competências, as suas capacidades inatas ou habilidades como individuo pluridimensional. Na logica desta racionalidade, o resultado desta ação do cidadão será potenciadora de uma melhor e mais eficiente democracia, numa sociedade integradora, onde há respeito pelos direitos humanos. A democracia Ganesa é nova, intrincada e continuamente confrontada com desafios complexos. Somos confrontados com várias crenças e práticas da cultura tradicional e sociopolíticas incompatíveis com as práticas comuns da democracia ocidental. O nosso argumento e nossa postura neste projecto é que, apesar de considerarmos que existe algum progresso no conceito da cidadania nas últimas décadas no Gana, o seu aperfeiçoamento, valorização e construção como uma política e conjunto de experiências sociais e culturais enfrentam graves condicionalismos ou limitações. Em geral, os constrangimentos na sua maioria parte são causadas por prevalência do conceito da estruturação de poder e das relações entres os poderes enraizados na tradição, que limitam o desenvolvimento das práticas democráticas na gestão da cidadania. Enquanto estes obstáculos ou constrangimentos existirem, o conceito da cidadania manter-se-á, perto da desigualdade e abuso dos direitos humanos (especialmente dos mais vulneráveis, como as mulheres, as crianças e os fisicamente e mentalmente incapacitados), refletindo mais na prevalência da logica tradicional do poder, em vez dos valores democráticas em favor da dignidade humana. Portanto defendemos a ideia de que a educação para uma nova compreensão da cidadania é a trajetória fundamental.

This work narrates a qualitative sociological exploration with auto-ethnographic underpinnings. It deals with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC) as a contextual case among others. The thesis seeks to answer the question of whether countries following a TRC route did better than those that did not use TRCs, when it comes to establishing civil control over the military. The author's exposure and involvement in the process as participant, participant observer, observer participant and observer inform the study. With the SATRC as one cornerstone other cases reflected upon include Argentina and Chile (Latin America), Spain and Portugal (Southern Europe), Namibia, Nigeria and Rwanda (Africa).
Sociology
D.Litt. et. Phil. (Sociology)

This research seeks to establish a methodology by which transitional justice strategies ought to be incorporated within the International Criminal Court (ICC) framework. The study is based on the situation in Uganda as an example of the state that has a situation and cases before the ICC. The aim of the thesis was achieved through the adoption of a combination of theoretical legal research and the non -doctrinal approaches. This research establishes that the primary responsibility to prosecute persons suspected of violating international law lies with the states. The importance of the concept of individual criminal responsibility, the idea that every person suspected of committing the most serious offences must be held accountable regardless of status. The principle of individual criminal responsibility is further developed with the creation of the ICC. This research clarifies that there are limitations in terms of what prosecutions can achieve during transitional periods; further, that trials in the ICC and national courts can be undertaken together with proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions or indigenous mechasims. Such an approach will allow for confines of prosecutions to be addressed. Despite the existence of principles and institutional framework that are intended to ensure individuals are held accountable for the most serious offences of international concern, the majority of individuals are not held accountable. In order for the ICC to operate effectively it would need to seek to go beyond deterrence and retribution. This would require post – conflict states to devise transitional arrangements that compel with the ICC structure. Thus the research recommends that it would be better for judicial and non- judicial measures to be adopted in states that have cases before the ICC. Particularly Uganda must adopt the mato oput method formally as a tool to address the past human rights abuses in Uganda. All persons regardless of whether they have been granted amnesty or not must be held accountable under the mato oput measures. This implies all persons with exception to those that the ICC has issued the warrants of arrest against.
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LL. D.