• Criminal prosecutions. These are judicial investigations of those responsible for human rights violations. Prosecutors frequently emphasise investigations of the ‘big fish’, that is, suspects considered most responsible for massive or systematic crimes. • Truth commissions. These commissions of inquiry have as their primary purpose the investigation of, and reporting on, key periods of abuse. They are often official state bodies that make recommendations to remedy human rights abuses and to prevent their recurrence. In several Latin American and African countries, truth commissions have documented past human rights abuses. Their mandates, powers and activities have varied from country to country (Hayner, 1994). As a rule, truth commissions are based on a peace agreement, on governmental decrees or laws of parliament. Usually, they are instructed to record human rights violations of a given period by collecting documents relating to these atrocities and by hearing victims as well as perpetrators. They usually have to provide the public with a detailed report about what has happened in the past and how such atrocities can be avoided in the future. In addition, churches and local human rights organisations often make similar efforts to document past human rights abuses, as, for example, in Brazil, Guatemala and Zimbabwe (Dassin, 1986; REMHI, 1998; Carver, 1993). • Reparations programmes. These are state-sponsored initiatives that help repair the material and moral damages of past abuse. They typically distribute a mix of material and symbolic benefits to victims, benefits that may include financial compensation and official apologies. • Gender justice. This initiative challenges impunity for sexual and gender-based violence and ensures women’s equal access to redress of human rights violations. • Security-system reform. This seeks to transform the military, police, judiciary and related state institutions from instruments of repression and corruption into instruments of public service and integrity. • Memorialisation efforts. These include the provision of museums and memorials that preserve public memory of victims and raise moral consciousness about past abuse in order to build a bulwark against its recurrence. Although these initiatives are widely understood to form a basis for transitional-justice efforts, they do not constitute an exhaustive list. Many societies have developed other creative approaches to past abuse, and this is one reason why the field has gained both strength and diversity over the years. Achieving respect for the rule of law is a constitutive aim of transitional justice and reconciliation processes. A holistic approach Dealing with widespread human rights violations raises significant practical difficulties. A country’s political balance may be delicate and a government may be unwilling to pursue wide-ranging initiatives, or it may be unable to do so without putting its own stability at risk. The many problems that flow from past abuses are often too complex to be solved by any one action. Judicial measures, including trials, are unlikely to suffice: If there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of victims and perpetrators, how can they all be dealt with fairly through the courts — especially in cases where those courts are weak and corrupt? Even if courts were adequate for the task of prosecuting everyone who might deserve it, in order to reconstruct a damaged social fabric other initiatives would be required. 98 Community Healing: A training manual for Zimbabwe