Nt1310 Unit 2 Journal

1. One word I encountered that I didn’t know (and what it means):
One term that I came across that I did not know was vetted. After researching the word I found that it meant, “investigate (someone) thoroughly, especially in order to ensure that they are suitable for a job requiring secrecy, loyalty, or trustworthiness” as defined by Dictionary.com. This gave me a better understanding of how Liberia decided that their commissioners appointed would be decided by a broad selection panel to ensure that the committee members agreed that the person was fit for the job.
2. Main argument of this article: The main argument of the article was to explain to the reader a how a truth commission was formed, and broke it down step-by-step explaining how it was started, and ending with outside factors that could be problematic during the trials. Hayner broke down how truth commissions were started, and went into detail also explaining the selection process for adding a person onto the committee. She followed up with explaining how long the truth commissions lasted for, and how these trials were funded. The article transitioned to the next phase of the truth commissions, which defined certain parameters such as what information would be recorded and how much evidence what needed for someone to be found guilty. The final portion of the article
described how the truth commissions worked under the constant threat of violence, which meant that their witness protection program needed to keep those testifying secured at all times. The final paragraph included examples where the truth commissions reached unavoidable difficulties which hindered their progress, such as, “the rainy season in some countries makes travel virtually impossible for several months” (Hayner 233). Events such as this made it difficult for the truth commissions to have trials that went uninterrupted and extended the case for longer than it needed to be. Hayner used examples from different truth commissions to support her arguments, such as explaining how he Guatemalan government contributed, “over $800,000 to support the work of the Guatemalan commission, toward its budget of $9.5 million,” (Hayner 217) while the remaining funds were from thirteen countries and two foundations.
3. One question I had: One question that I had after reading the article was, “Is it likely that a European country would use a truth commission?” The reason why I am asking this, is because one of the first attempts at a truth commission was the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and the most recent trial were the Nuremberg Trials in 1945 and the Rome Statute in 1998. Europe has helped establish international laws to punish people, but it has been over 60 years since the last truth commission done in a European country. Throughout the four chapters, the article primarily mentioned African and South American countries, which made me think about whether or not nations in that continent would ever use these trials.
4. One quote I found interesting: One quote that I found interesting while reading was when the author was explaining how having truth commissions were usually surrounded by danger as, “the continued presence and impunity of known perpetrators, the intense fear of witnesses, and the impossibility of providing protection to deponents can make public hearings risky” (Hayner 219).
It was interesting to think how dangerous having truth commissions were since the people being tried still had connections to their superiors. The article explained how in certain situations, the truth commotions were forced to be private, in order to keep those associated with the trial
protected.
5. Something I want to say about the article: After reading the article, I felt that I had a better understanding of how the truth commissions were set up. In the previous readings assigned in class, the articles only looked at what happened during the truth commission, and not the process of setting one up and having trials. This article helped bridge the gap of my understanding of truth commissions and made me more knowledgeable about the subject. I found that the article was well-written and the examples from different countries trials helped me have a better understanding for how each one was set up differently. I also enjoyed how the article informed the reader about how dangerous the truth commissions were to hold, since it made me understand that there was still bad blood between the war criminal and the country that tried him, even though he was captured.