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Truth, Reconciliation, and the Creation of a Human Rights Culture in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

James L. Gibson
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Abstract

One of the stated objectives of the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa was the creation of a political culture respectful of human rights. Thus, part of the “reconciliation” sought by the truth process was nurturing a set of cultural values among the populace that would make the gross human rights abuses that characterized the apartheid regime difficult if not impossible to reimplement in the future. Those creating the truth and reconciliation process assumed (hoped) that knowledge of the truth about the country's apartheid past would somehow contribute to the development of such a culture.

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether a culture respectful of human rights has been created in South Africa. Based on a survey of roughly 3,700 South Africans (concluded early in 2001), I begin by conceptualizing what it means for cultures and individuals to be supportive of human rights. This conceptual approach then provides guidance for operationalizing support for human rights—and in particular support for universalism in the rule of law—within the survey context. Thus, the first objective of my article is descriptive: To what extent has a human rights culture been created in South Africa?

But this article is about far more than describing the human rights culture of South Africa. The truth and reconciliation process hypothesizes that “truth” can contribute to this culture. But does it? With measures of the degree to which individual South Africans accept the truth about the country's apartheid past, this hypothesis can be rigorously tested. In addition, I explore a variety of additional explanations of support for human rights values, ranging from experiences under apartheid to attitudes toward South Africans of a different race. I conclude that whether a South African prefers a universalistic approach to the rule of law depends upon truth acceptance, interracial attitudes, and support for strong majoritarianism. Still, even with controls, racial differences in attitudes toward the rule of law persist in contemporary South Africa. Perhaps the most important contribution of this article is its evidence that the truth—participation in a country's collective memory—can affect the values that individual citizens hold.

Type
Articles Of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 5 - 40
Copyright
© 2004 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 25–28, 2002, Chicago, Illinois. This research has been supported by the Law and Social Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation (SES 9906576). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The project is a collaborative effort between Amanda Gouws, Department of Political Science, University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), and me. I am indebted to Charles Villa-Vicencio, Helen Macdonald, Paul Haupt, Nyameka Goniwe, Fanie du Toit, Erik Doxtader, and the staff of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa), where I am a Distinguished Visiting Research Scholar, for the many helpful discussions that have informed my understanding of the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa. I also appreciate the research assistance of Eric Lomazoff of the Russell Sage Foundation.

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