Four decades of Cold War animosities prevented the creation of such an institution. Now the idea that international standards of humanity should be enforced is taking hold at national and international levels. Two war-crimes tribunals are currently at work at the international level, one at the Hague investigating war crimes in Bosnia, the other in Arusha, Tanzania, focused on the Rwandan massacres.
Much work remains to be done, and some pessimism is appropriate.
Still, truth commissions haven't raised levels of criminality or caused political upheaval, as some detractors warned they might, and in many cases they have been effective elements of larger democratic transition processes and political reconciliation. TRC chairman Desmond Tutu recently said in a speech to South African journalists that his commission was contributing to healing the wounds of the nation. In many ways it has been unbelievable. It has been almost breathtaking this willingness to forgive, this magnanimity, this nobility of spirit. . . . This process has made a contribution to reconciliation, to healing. . . .