Overview
- Comprehensively analyses all aspects of a truth commission's work and procedure
- Defines criteria for assessing the National Reconciliation Commission that can be used to assess other transitional justice mechanisms
- Employs qualitative and quantitative data to analyse the effectiveness of the National Reconciliation Commission
- Reflects on the prospects and options for revisiting Ghana’s past and addressing the gross human rights violations investigated by the National Reconciliation Commission
Part of the book series: International Criminal Justice Series (ICJS, volume 25)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Effectiveness of truth commissions
- Assessment criteria for the impact of truth commissions
- Assessment of transitional justice mechanisms
- Ghana's transitional process
- Features of truth commissions
- The duty to prosecute
- Goals of transitional justice
- The goal of truth
- Provision of remedies to victims
- Legality of amnesties under international law
About this book
This book situates Ghana's truth-telling process, which took place from 2002 to 2004, within the discourse on the effectiveness of the different mechanisms used by post-conflict and post-dictatorship societies to address gross human rights violations. The National Reconciliation Commission was the most comprehensive transitional justice mechanism employed during Ghana's transitional process in addition to amnesties, reparations and minimal institutional reforms. Due to a blanket amnesty that derailed all prospects of resorting to judicial mechanisms to address gross human rights violations, the commission was established as an alternative to prosecutions.
Against this background, the author undertakes a holistic assessment of the National Reconciliation Commission's features, mandate, procedure and aftermath to ascertain the loopholes in Ghana's transitional process. She defines criteria for the assessment, which can be utilised with some modifications to assess the impact of other transitional justice mechanisms. Furthermore, she also reflects on the options and possible setbacks for future attempts to address the gaps in the mechanisms utilised.With a detailed account of the human rights violations perpetrated in Ghana from 1957 to 1993, this volume of the International Criminal Justice Series provides a useful insight into the factors that shape the outcomes of transitional justice processes.
Given its combination of normative, comparative and empirical approaches, the book will be useful to academics, students, practitioners and policy makers by fostering their understanding of the implications of the different features of truth commissions, the methods for assessing transitional justice mechanisms, and the different factors to consider when designing mechanisms to address gross human rights violations in the aftermath of a conflict or dictatorship.Marian Yankson-Mensah is a Researcher and ProjectOfficer at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Nuremberg, Germany.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Transitional Justice in Ghana
Book Subtitle: An Appraisal of the National Reconciliation Commission
Authors: Marian Yankson-Mensah
Series Title: International Criminal Justice Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-379-5
Publisher: T.M.C. Asser Press The Hague
eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: T.M.C. Asser Press and the author 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-6265-378-8Published: 09 April 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-6265-381-8Published: 09 April 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-94-6265-379-5Published: 08 April 2020
Series ISSN: 2352-6718
Series E-ISSN: 2352-6726
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 250
Number of Illustrations: 6 illustrations in colour
Topics: Human Rights, International Criminal Law , Public International Law