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28 Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 527 (2018-2019)
Lessons from Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Kenya, and the United States for Transitional and Restorative Justice

handle is hein.journals/kjpp28 and id is 553 raw text is: LESSONS FROM TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA, KENYA, AND THE UNITED STATES FOR TRANSITIONAL AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE By Lindsay Harroff * This article studies the rhetoric of truth commissions in South Africa and Kenya, as well as a proposal for a commission in the United States, to better understand how truth commissions contribute to the formation of new national communities. Drawing on rhetorical methods and the theoretical perspective of decoloniality, I argue that truth commissions can offer new ways of understanding national community. Along the way, my analysis refigures key terms in the work of truth commissions: truth, reconciliation, justice, and through all of these national unity. I conclude by discussing the problems of applying establishedframeworks transitional and restorative justice in disparate contexts. Ultimately, I challenge scholars and practitioners to instead consider how particular cases can transform our understanding of these very concepts andframeworks. Section I of this paper sets up the above argument. Section II describes the invention and rise in popularity of truth commissions within the framework of transitional justice. Section III reviews the contributions of rhetorical scholarship to the study of truth commissions and describes the theoretical and methodological framework of my analysis. Section IV analyzes the rhetoric of truth * Ph.D. Candidate, Communication Studies, The University of Kansas. M.A., Communication Studies, The University of Kansas. B.A., Communication Studies and Political Science, Funan University. The author thanks Dr. Dave Tell for his advice and support throughout the writing of this article. She also thanks the editorial board of the Kansas Journal ofLaw and Public Policy for all of their work.

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