Abstracts and Biographies:
Practice values
Values and restorative justice: The South African example
|
| Robert Iseman |
| The South African truth and
Reconciliation Commission stands as one of the greatest moral
challenges ever attempted by a country. By the end of the 1980’s
South Africa had experienced 50 years of one of the most brutal and
oppressive governments of the 20th Century. With the election of a
black majority government in 1994 the country was attempting to move
from barbarism to civil government in just a few years and words
like vengeance, retribution and restitution dominated the political
discourse. Most political analysts were predicting a period of
instability, a dramatic white exodus and probably civil war. The
proposition that a "Truth Commission" might be able to
mediate the potential damage had to be considered as a possibility.
Truth commissions had been attempted in a number of cases around the
world as a method of healing wounds caused by gross violations of
human rights but most had experienced little success. Given the
extreme challenge the South Africa experience has been successful
beyond most expectations and South Africa continues to grow in
strength and stability.
This paper argues that the most significant factor in South
Africa’s success was the moral leadership of Nelson Mandela and
Desmond Tutu. Mandela could speak with the power of moral authority
as a victim of human rights violations who was willing to take a
stand for making a break with the past for the sake of the future
and Tutu invoked the combined rhetoric of Kantian rationalist ethics
and Christianity.
Together they were able to convince a whole nation that the
healing power of restorative justice was the ‘right” thing to
do. |
| ...................................................................... |
| Robert Iseman is a Senior
Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy. He lectures
in Philosophy, Ethics, Counselling and Workplace Conflict. He
divides his time between teaching and duties as president of the
UniSA Branch of the NTEU. |
|
Return to Program page | Return to APMF home
|
|
This conference is sponsored by the World Mediation Forum,
the University of South Australia, and the Hawke Institute.
Related sites: Ausdispute | Conflict Management Research Group | AAPAE Conference
 Disclaimer | Copyright (c) 2001 University of South Australia
Updated 21 February 2003 |
