Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
October 23, 1997
INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIA- TION COMMISSION'S PROPOSED REPARATION AND REHABILITATION POLICIES
By Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize, Chairperson, Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee of the TRC
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is today pleased to announce its proposed reparation and rehabilitation policies.
The proposals have have been discussed with the Government but they nevertheless remain proposals at this stage. They will be considered fully by Government and Parliament when the Commission's final report is presented next year. The Commission is not empowered to implement recommendations on a final reparations policy, so final decisions on our recommendations are in the hands of the Government.
Why Reparations?
But before I sketch to you to an outline of the policies, and ask my colleagues to deal with specific aspects of the policy, I would like to deal first with the question of why there should be reparations at all. The reason for reparations can be summarised as follows:
- Health needs;
- Mental health needs;
- Psycho-social burdens for communities and society at large; and
- Education and training needs.
- Reparation and rehabilitation measures are necessary to counter-balance the amnesty process;
- R&R measures and services will offer South African society as a whole a systematic way of re-visiting and dealing with the memories of the apartheid years, and of entrenching a human rights culture.
- REMEMBERING SUFFERING is important to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not forgotten. To take a Christian paradigm, Jesus, when he had supper with his disciples, warned them not to forget his suffering but rather to remember it with the aim of striving towards perfection, lest they cause somebody els to suffer. Our own politcal leaders have challenged future generations not to forget the pain and suffering of those who liberated South Africans.
- There is also a legal basis for reparations: the Preamble to theAct which gives us our mandate says one of our objectives is to provide for the "taking of measures aimed at the granting of reparation to, and the rehabilitation and the restoration of the human and civil dignity of, victims of violations of human rights..."
Policy development
In formulating the policy and recommendations, the Reparation and Rehabiliation Committee of the Commissio was guided by a number of processes:
- Witnesses' statements: We took into account the aspirations of those who suffered by listening to their testimony;
- The TRC database: We analysed the needs and expectations of victims and survivors as extracted from their written statements and recorded on our database;
- An intensive consultative process: We conducted monthly regional workshops in each regional office, including representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations, Community-based Organisations, faith communities, academic institutions, government departments and youth structures.
- We presented our ideas to significant bodies such as the American Psychiatric Association, the British Medical Association, the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.
Implementation of proposals, and principles of policy
How should the policy proposals be implemented? What should be the guiding philosophy?
- Accountability should be in the President's Office;
- Implementation strategy should allow for active community participation. To ensure that the process is driven from the grassroots, we propose the following pillars upon which each service should be founded:
- It should be development-centred;
- It should be simple and efficient;
- Measures should be culturally appropriate;
- Services should be community based;
- Measures should aim atbuiling capacity' and
- They should promote healing the reconciliation.
Structure of policy
What does the structure of the proposed policy look like? The proposed reparation and rehabilitation policy has five components:
Urgent interim reparation (UIR)
UIR is assistance for people in urgent need, to access appropriate service and facilities. Limited financial resources will be made available to faciitat this access. We have utlined this element previously, so I will not go into it in detail here.
Individual Reparation Grants (IRG)
It is proposed that individual reparation should take the form of a scheme underwhich victims or survivors of gross human rights violations will receive individual, annual financial grants for a period of six years. Most of the value of the grant would acknowledge the suffering caused by the gross violation of human rights. However, people living in rural areas, where it is more difficult to access services such as health care, and those with many dependants, could receive higher grants. Past compensation granted as a direct result of the violation would be deducted.
The minimum payment will be about R17,000 a year for six years. However, the annual payment may be topped up for those who have many dependants or those who live in rural areas. The maximum "top-up" would take the annual payment to an amount of R23,000 a year for six years.
Symbolic reparation / Legal and Administrative measures
Symbolic reparation encompasses measures to facilitate the communal process of commemorating the pain and victories of the past. Amongst other measures, symbolic reparation will entail identifying a national day of remembrance and reconciliation, erection of memorials and monuments. On a more individual level, symbolic reparation could also mean assistance to inividals in obtaining death certificates and finalising outstanding legal matters, or clearing their names from criminal records. Victims may be eligible to have relatives exhumed and reburied, or in some cases to receive a headstone or tombstone.
The Commission has further recommended that streets and community facilities should be renamed to reflect and honour individuals or events in communities. It ientiied a need for culturally appropriate ceremonies in certain communities, which could in some instances include cleansing ceremonies. We believe local and provincial authorities should arrange such ceremonies in close co-operation with faith communities and cultural and community organisations.
Community Rehabilitation Programmes
These are proposals for the establishment of community based services and activities, aimed at promoting the healing and recovery of individuals and communities which have been affected by human rights violations.
Community Rehabilitation Programmes hinge on the main policy principle that reparation should be development centred, to empower individuals and communities to take control of their own lives. It therefore implies the provision of sufficient knowledge and information about available resources to victims though a participatory process.
The Commission states clearly in its proposal that providing individuals with resources to access services is not enough as these services are in many cases "unavailable, inaccessible or inappropriate". It also notes that entire communities have been subjected to systemic abuse, and may suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms. The proposals make provision for rehabilitation programmes at community and national levels.
Among the categories of community rehabilitation recommended are health care, mental health care, education and housing. A programme to demilitarise the youth who have come to accept violence as a way of resolving conflict is included under emotional health care, as is a multi-disciplinary programme involving all ministrie and departments to resettle the thousands of "internal" refugees driven from their homes due to political conflict. The Commission further proposes mental health interventions on community leel, s well as specialised trauma counselling services and family-based therapy. It calls for housing projects in communities where gross violations of human rights led to mass destruction of property and/or displacement. All these programmes would make provision for the establishment of services and activities in the community, aimed at promoting the healing and recovery of individuals and communities affected by violations.
Institutional Reform
These proposals include legal, administrative and institutional measures designed to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuse. Institutional reform overlaps with the broader aims of the Commission, including measures designed to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuses, for implementation in a wide range of sectors such as the judiciary, media, security forces and business. Recommendations of a legal, administrative and institutional nature, to ensure the development of a human rights culture in South Africa, will be included in the Final Report of the TRC.
Inquiries: John Allen, 082- 452-7859