A Report of the Visit of Doctor Alex Boraine, Deputy Chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to Northern Ireland
The struggle against 200 years of Apartheid in South Africa resulting in a negotiated settlement produced a deeply divided society where hostility, mistrust and instability prevailed.
So that this would not destroy the new democracy, the need emerged to develop a new way of coming to terms with the past. The way forward had to create the environment for a lasting and peaceful settlement yet without the need to conceal the many occurrences of human rights abuse.