From 9 to 11 October 2013, over 64 organisations representing a cross-section of transitional justice stakeholders, converged in Johannesburg to interrogate the question of how to make Zimbabwe’s National Peace and Reconciliation Commission competent and effective. Running under the theme; Truth Commissions: the Best Practices, the conference benefitted from the experiences of commissioners from Kenya, South Africa and Sierra Leone as well as a distinguished scholar and witness from the commission in Guatemala and outstanding academics from Germany, Northern Ireland and South Africa. The conference also benefitted from the keynote address by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Professor Pablo de Greiff in which he emphasised the role of civil society in any truth recovery process since commissions do not start from scratch.
This report summarises the deliberations and outcomes of the conference. The outcomes of the conference have since started shaping the transitional justice discourse with some of the recommendations already in motion, like the setting up of the National Transitional Justice Working Group. To access the full report, please follow the following link: ICTJ II Conference Report
