Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Dear Justices,
My name is Kathleen Tang and I am a Junior studying Social Anthropology at Harvard. A lot of people are curious as to what Social Anthropology actually is and I like to think that it consists of an anthropologist trying to understand a group of people and their culture in the present in order to better facilitate and inform interactions and potential policies made in the future. As a former highly active member in the MUN community during high school I am super excited to be directing a Truth and Reconciliation Committee in college! MUN has been a part of my life for the past 6 or so years, and now being able to combine it with my academic interests and sharing this experience with all of you is truly an honor.
There are many reasons why I can barely contain my excitement for this committee – one of the main ones being that by the time HNMUN happens I will have been to South Africa for two months and hopefully talked to a lot of people involved in the South African TRC process. Ethnographies and first hand accounts are what a social anthropologist lives for and I can’t wait to get involved in field work on the ground. My second reason, which perhaps is even more important than my first, is my interest in reconciliation and transitional justice in post-conflict societies. Although I certainly have my own views in the matter I believe that this simulation will bring to light new ways of thinking about the reconciliation process that neither I, nor any of you could have come up with alone. Also, the format of Specialized Agencies at NMUN will make it such that this experience will, I’m sure, far exceed any type of textbook classroom education on the topic.
I hope you are all as excited as I am to learn more about apartheid, South Africa, and transitional justice at large. I’ll see you all at HNMUN 2011!
Sincerely,
Kathleen Tang
Director, Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Harvard National Model United Nations 2011
Topic Area:
The world, and the continent of African in particular, has seen its fair share of violence and atrocities during the past few decades. Certainly these conflicts have been brought to the attention of the international community at their peak, as apartheid in South Africa was a decade and a half ago. However, what is more interesting and raises potentially even more difficult questions than the period during which apartheid was at its peak, is the aftermath of the conflict. Transitional stages in society are instrumental in establishing the stability of a nation moving forward.
In order to restore order to a society by better understanding the situations and context within which all the violence occurred, South Africa set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), promising amnesty to perpetrators who admitted to their crimes during the apartheid period. Though there were many applicants, not all were granted amnesty, and in this committee it is up to you to decide whose crimes match up in intensity to the political motivations for which they were carried out.
After this crucial decision there comes the even more important decision of reparations for the victims. After all, what possible reparations can be given to a woman who has lost her husband and children or an activist who was jailed for 15 years of his life and faced inhumane conditions in prison? What reparations will help these people enough such that they won’t go out and extract personal vengeance on their own and further destabilize society?
All of these questions are very important to take into consideration as nations try to rebuild after large-scale violence has been wrought on their people. In addition, due to the relatively new nature of TRCs in general as a mechanism of transitional justice, your answers to these questions may be some the world has never before seen.
I am very excited for this committee and look forward to seeing all of you and hearing about the innovative and ingenious ideas you will be implementing in order to better the future of South Africa.
