Putting a Face on the Past: Survivor-Offender Mediation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Recently, a group of NGOs have been meeting to 'think-tank' the concept of Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) as a practical link to assist the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to deal with the process of reconciliation. This consortium of NGOs was convened by Centre of Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the Letsema Conflict Transformation Resource of Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre. This paper gives a brief overview of the VOM concept, a proposed structure for Survivor-Offender Mediation in the South African TRC context, and some suggestions regarding the way forward.

 

Putting a Face on the Past_ Survivor-offender mediation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Carl S. Stauffer

Carl S. Stauffer is Coordinator of the Letsema Conflict Transformation Resource at the Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre.

Brandon Hamber

Brandon Hamber is a former CSVR Programme Manager. He holds a PhD Psychology from The University of Ulster and BA (Hons) MA (Clin. Psych) Ph.D. Clinical Psychology from The University of the Witwatersrand.