Political Salon: Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions

In a sweeping review of 40 truth commissions, Priscilla Hayner delivers a definitive exploration of the global experience in official truth-seeking after widespread atrocities. When Unspeakable Truths was first published by Routledge in 2001, it was the first of its kind and quickly became a classic, helping to define the field of truth commissions and the broader arena of transitional justice. Since then, 20 new commissions have been formed and many countries have encountered new obstacles and opportunities in the painful and dramatic search for truth, justice and reconciliation. In the fully updated and expanded second edition of Unspeakable Truths, Hayner assesses the impact of truth commissions, analyzes new trends, and highlights new thinking in reparations, international justice, healing from trauma and gender. Placing the increasing number of truth commissions within the broader expansion in transitional justice, Unspeakable Truths challenges many widely-held assumptions and will help define how nations in the future will deal with painful pasts.

About the Speakers

Priscilla Hayner is a cofounder of the International Center for Transitional Justice and served as program director and then director of its Geneva office and its Peace and Justice Program until early 2010. Hayner has written widely on official truth-seeking in political transitions, first publishing Unspeakable Truths, a comparative study of truth commissions, in 2001.  She has also undertaken extensive research on how justice issues are addressed in peace processes, with numerous publications including a guidance note for mediators.  She currently serves as a senior advisor to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva. She was previously a consultant to the Ford Foundation and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
 
Moderated by Ami Dar of Idealist.org

Ami Dar is the founder and executive director of Idealist.org. Built in 1996 with $3,500, Idealist has become one of the most popular nonprofit resources on the web. Ami is an Ashoka Fellow and currently serves on the boards of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Allforgood.org. He was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Peru and in Mexico, and lives in New York.