Panorama of Truth Commissions in Brazil: a reflection on new understandings of democratic legitimity and representation

Abstract

Introduction:

The National Truth Commission (NTC) in Brazil, established in May 2012, investigated human rights violations perpetrated by the civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985) almost thirty tears after the new democracy in the country. It triggered the subsequent creation of a large number of non-national truth commissions, a phenomenon we name commissionism. This article describes it and investigates the large body of representative claims articulated by truth commissions.

Materials and Methods:

The analysis is based on data collected by the authors, including the final reports of truth commissions, research on social media, local and national press, and interviews with commissioners.

Results:

We sustain that the fundamental shared trait of the representative claims deployed by the non-national truth commissions in Brazil involves conceptualizing victims as legitimate representatives, who are qualified by the moral authority of their experience, in contrast with other national truth commissions.

Discussion:

Truth commissions are non-elected bodies that lack traditional accountability mechanisms at their inception. Their actors have agreed and disagreed over their legitimate foundations. On the one side, they agree on the moral objective of Human Rights and on the assumption that they are achieved by exposing the “truth” about the violent past. On the other side, there is substantial disagreement about the driving values behind the commissions, which can to some extent be described by the notions of active impartiality and proximity, such as articulated by Pierre Rosanvalón, and perspective, such as articulated by Iris Young.

Keywords:
truth commissions; democracy; human rights; legitimity; representation