Part 6 of the Zimbabwean 2013 Constitution establishes a National Peace and Reconciliation
Commission (NPRC) and provides for its composition, functions and reports. This is supposed to
be a temporary body led by an experienced lawyer, which will last for 10 years. This body has a
broad mandate as it supposed to be both forward and backward looking. In particular, the NPRC
has to recover the truth about past atrocities, facilitate the provision of reparations, resolve
disputes and pre-empt future conflict. On the face of it, the Constitutional provisions are
progressive as they factor the four key areas which a state has to address so that it can adequately
deals with its past. These are the right to know, right to justice, right to reparation and guarantees
of non-recurrence. However, given Zimbabwe's experience with state-led truth recovery
processes it is still to be seen whether there will be a genuine public acknowledgement of past
human rights violations. Public acknowledgement of human rights abuses is necessary for
peace, national healing and reconciliation as it establishes trust and accountability.
Challenges & Threats
The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission has one of the following functions….
(c) to bring about national reconciliation by encouraging people to tell the truth about the
past and facilitating the making of amends and the provision of justice.
At least four questions need to be asked about the envisaged Zimbabwean truth recovery
processes and all of them relate to the feasibility of its mandate. The first issue has to do with
passage of time and effects of past amnesties. On this note, the paper assumes that dilemmas of
amnesties and the passage of time can be dealt with as the legacy of Nuremberg has set the
precedent that there are some heinous crimes whose prosecution are not constrained by time
limits. It is now accepted that certain amnesties are not permissible in international law and can
thus be waived.
The second question has to do with the truth about responsibility for violations of economic,
social and cultural rights and how amends can be made. Despite the fact that the notion of
indivisibility and interdependence of rights is now recognized, Zimbabwean human rights
documentation is still largely Eurocentric in that its principal focus is on civil and political rights.
This issue has more added importance when it comes to gender based violence and any
discussions of human rights violations in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2008.
Truth Commissions: the Best Practices
27
Select target paragraph3
Add to table of contents