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Healing Psychosocial Trauma In The Midst Of Truth Commissions: The Case Of Gacaca In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Regine U. King

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Post-conflict governments and multilateral organizations have advocated truth commissions since the end of the Cold War. The mandate of truth commissions has been to combine the rule of law with psychosocial goals in the hope that they will break systemic cycles of violence and facilitate reconciliation. While these com- missions emphasize the dimensions of truth telling, apology, forgiveness, and recon- ciliation, in practice, they are often challenged to fulfill the mandate of healing psychosocial traumas through these dimensions in countries that suffer not only from the traumatic experience of wars and genocide, but also from the multiple psychosocial issues that …