Les commissions de vérité : une alternative au droit ?

Abstract

Truth Commissions are seen either as an alternative to criminal law in a post-conflict situation or as a component of international criminal law development. To better understand what truth commissions are, we need to take a look at their history and to know who are their promoters. If their relation to law is not clear, it is, on one hand, because the tool has changed: a former component of a Realpolitik designed to legitimate amnesty laws benefiting to the perpetrators, it is now seen as an alternative kind of justice, a restorative one. On the other hand, « transitional justice » experts have tried, with only a partial success, to make truth commissions a part of post-conflict legal tools package. The articulation between truth commissions and law remain unclear and ambiguous.

Keywords

• democratization
• international criminal law
• political conflict
• political violence
• reconciliation
• restorative justice