Truth and Reconciliation Commissions as a mechanism for consolidating national reconciliation A comparative study of the experience of Sierra Leone and South Africa

Abstract

National reconciliation has been one of the safest ways for many African countries to find their way out of national crises, However, the option of national reconciliation was not often the result of the political decision of the leaders of these countries but rather the result of the international circumstances surrounding the national state as well as the special security, economic, political and social repercussions experienced by each of these countries. These consequences vary according to the seriousness of the crisis and the international circumstances surrounding these countries as well. This study aims to analyze some African models that succeeded in getting their countries out of the political crisis that is ravaging them, and adopted to consolidate its model of national reconciliation on the mechanism of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the question here is whether this mechanism can bring these countries to the stage of consolidating national reconciliation.

This study is based on a comparative approach to highlighting the ability of a key variable in two different African countries to do the same if favorable conditions exist. This would enable us to generalize the results if it emerges that the resolution of many of the conflicts in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa has gone through the same variable in an attempt to consolidate the idea of ​​national reconciliation and go beyond simply addressing political crises through security measures.