Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy by Onur Bakiner (review)

After periods of mass violence, transitional governments are often called upon by their people, human rights groups, and international organizations to right the wrongs of the past. A truth commission is a restorative justice approach that investigates past abuses to expose what happened to whom, where, how, and by whose hands. Many individuals and groups that have a stake in the formation of the new nation-state question whether truth commissions can provide justice in a meaningful way or if criminal trials are better suited for the task. It is now most often recognized that both are essential in this liminal period, though the timing and relationship between them is disputed (Lutz 2006).

Over the past 40 years, truth commissions have been formed around the world to address different situations, but they all share a desire to debunk prevailing narratives that gloss over exploitation and brutality. Scholars and proponents of liberal, democratic development examine what aspects of truth commissions are successful because they represent a hope to overcome horrible violence and suffering and to forge a new nation-state that honors human rights. As the intent and form of truth commissions changes over time, they are scrutinized from all angles to understand their role in the development of society and their contribution to justice for human rights abuses. Anthropological studies in particular examine local understandings of justice, the tensions between local, national, and global objectives, and how truth commission processes prioritize and ostracize particular groups (Wilson 2001, Theidon 2012, Shaw 2014).

In many ways, Onur Bakiner’s Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy is a remarkable addition to the growing literature on truth commissions. It draws upon the scholarly research of multiple disciplines to examine the impact of truth commissions as a mechanism of transitional justice on a practical level and contributes to our theoretical understanding of how truth commissions are shaped by and influence society. While Bakiner approaches this subject as a comparative political scientist, the work is informed by and makes some contributions to anthropological studies of transitional justice and human rights. This examination incorporates existing qualitative studies into the author’s own semi-structured interviews and archival research and comments on more recent quantitative studies. It recognizes that ethnographic research has brought to light complex power dynamics of truth commissions and has shown that each truth commission must fit the particular social, economic, and political circumstances in opposition to a one-size-fits-all approach. He also condones further ethnographic studies that seek to better understand the complexity of peoples’ identities and roles in times of conflict. Bakiner refers to Richard A. Wilson’s discussion of “elective affinities between global human rights and particular social constituencies” (2006:77–78) as an inspiration from which to consider those relationships mediated by the truth commission process (243). The role of truth commissions are then considered in light of broader theoretical discussions of truth, memory, and politics. Bakiner’s conclusions, as noted in more detail below, are in line with the current direction of anthropological studies that examine truth commissions both more closely from a local perspective and as one part of larger national and global initiatives.

Truth Commissions is organized into three parts that together analyze the existing research on truth commissions, in addition to Bakiner’s own in Chile and Peru, to measure their impact and propose guidelines for the development of future commissions that are thoughtful and valuable. Part 1 is dedicated to a close examination of truth commissions in which Bakiner notes how the high degree of variation in choices made by scholars to classify something as a “truth commission” contributes to different conclusions regarding their effectiveness. For Bakiner, a truth commission “is a temporary body established with an official mandate to investigate past human rights violations, identify the patterns and causes of violence, and publish a final report through a politically autonomous procedure” (24). Though they overlap, Bakiner’s definition is stricter in its requirements than the one advocated by Priscilla Hayner (2011...