Book contents
- Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice
- Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Alphabetical List of Entries
- Thematic List of Entries
- List of Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations by Country
- Timeline of Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations
- Entries on Transitional Justice Methods, Processes, and Practices
- Entries on Transitional Justice Debates, Controversies, and Key Questions
- Entries on Transitional Justice Concepts and Terms
- Country Studies
- Entries on Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations
- References
Entries on Transitional Justice Debates, Controversies, and Key Questions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2023
- Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice
- Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Alphabetical List of Entries
- Thematic List of Entries
- List of Authors
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations by Country
- Timeline of Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations
- Entries on Transitional Justice Methods, Processes, and Practices
- Entries on Transitional Justice Debates, Controversies, and Key Questions
- Entries on Transitional Justice Concepts and Terms
- Country Studies
- Entries on Transitional Justice Institutions and Organizations
- References
Summary
The archival heritage of outgoing authoritarian or otherwise repressive regimes, be it the archives of the ruling party, police records, secret surveillance files, or other archives of various institutions, is of paramount importance for transitional justice. Such archives, often previously secret, are essential for policies like lustration and investigations of truth commissions, and archival documents are often used as evidence in criminal trials. Also, the direct access of citizens to their personal surveillance files made by communist secret police is one of the most direct ways of providing justice to the victims of these regimes. Many view access to archives as the single most important instrument for understanding and coming to terms with the past. Numerous analysts hold, however, a more cautious view of the benefits of unlimited access to these archives, and warn against excessive expectations of finding the ultimate truth solely on the basis of these records. Archival records were of remarkable utility for the trials against former leaders and the truth commissions in Latin America, but the advantages – and the disadvantages – of using archival records for transitional justice purposes were particularly clearly revealed in post-communist Eastern Europe, where such records have played a central role in screening, lustration, and public identification of perpetrators.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice , pp. 159 - 403Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023