More than just an opportunity to uncover fact after conflict, truth commissions can also offer restorative power to nations across the globe. Truth Commissions and State Building presents the first comparative study of the role of its kind, illuminating these possibilities.

Examining truth commissions as mechanisms for civic inclusion, identity formation, institutional reform, and nation (re)building in post-conflict and post-authoritarian societies, the book shifts attention towards institutional innovation in African countries, where approximately a third of all commissions have been established. Contributors explore the mandates, methods, outcomes, and legacies of truth commissions, analyzing their place in transitional and restorative justice. Rather than conceptualizing state building as incidental to their work, they present it as an intrinsic, central component. This flagship volume – authored by a stellar cast of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars – brings multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral perspectives to bear on the complex role of truth commissions in addressing transitional justice, historical injustices, and present-day human rights violations.

As more countries, in both the Global South and the North, adopt this model to address historical and contemporary abuses, the dialogue between different sectors of society modelled here will help inform this process – wherever it might occur.

Bonny Ibhawoh is professor of history and Senator William McMaster Chair in Global Human Rights at McMaster University.

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Jasper Abembia Ayelazuno is associate professor of political science and vice-dean of the Faculty of Communication and Cultural Studies at the University for Development Studies, Ghana.

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Sylvia Bawa is associate professor of sociology at York University.

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“While there are a few books on transitional justice, broadly construed, and others focusing on Africa, this volume’s framing is entirely unique and its discussion of outcomes and legacies, essential.” Aderomola Adeola, co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Democracy, Governance and Justice in Africa

“This is the first time I have seen an effort to develop sustained and systematic investigation of how truth commissions operate as state building tools. The book will be of great interest to those studying transitional justice, as well as African politics, memory politics, and legal pluralism.” Bronwyn Leebaw, author of Judging State-Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change