The era of transitional justice : the aftermath of the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa and beyond / Paul Gready.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Truth as genre -- From social truth to rights-based participation -- Justice past -- Justice present -- Speaking truth to reconciliation -- Reconciliation, relationships and the everyday -- Conclusion.

The Era of Transitional Justice explores a broad set of issues raised by political transition and transitional justice through the prism of the South African TRC. South Africa constitutes a powerful case study of the enduring structural legacies of a troubled past, and of both the potential and limitations of transitional justice and human rights as agents of transformation in the contemporary era. South Africa{u2019}s story has wider relevance because it helped to launch constitutional human rights and transitional justice as global discourses; as such, its own legacy is to some extent writ large in post-authoritarian and post-conflict contexts across the world. Based on a decade of research, and in an analysis that is both comparative and interdisciplinary, Paul Gready maintains that transitional justice needs to do more to address structural violence {u2013} and in particular poverty, inequality and social and criminal violence {u2013} as these have emerged as stubborn legacies from an oppressive or war-torn past in many parts of the world. Organised around four central themes {u2013} new keyword conceptualisation (truth, justice, reconciliation); re-imagining human rights; engaging with the past and present; remaking the public sphere {u2013} it is an argument that will be of considerable relevance to those interested in the law and politics of transitional societies.