Toward a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for New African/Black Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War and Freedom Fighters

Abstract

There is a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the U.S. to examine the history of slavery, oppression, racism, segregation, and lynching, and to resolve the issues of political prisoners of the Civil Rights/Black Liberation struggle who fought against these gross human rights abuses. The original Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was setup in South Africa to redress the gross violations of human rights by the apartheid regime. It was a tool to assist a peaceful transition to a democratic society by public acknowledgement of the abuses by the government and its agents. TRC allows the victims’ voices to be heard and the perpetrators to confess their crimes in an application for amnesty, as well as amnesty for political prisoners. The concept of crimes against humanity comes under International Law and the Geneva Convention adopted by the world at the U.N. in 1948. The idea of the TRC is premised on the fact that to truly have a democratic society, transitioning from one where human rights violations and crimes against humanity were grave and extensive, there has to be a process for reconciliation, acknowledgment of abuses, documentation of abuses, accountability, reparation and an effort to establish the facts. Encompassing this process is the idea of amnesty to “solidify” the democratic society. As one considers these principles and ideas of the TRC process and considers the history of race relations and the gross human rights abuses against Blacks and particularly Black political prisoners for opposing the “neo apartheid”