The Success of Argentina's Conadep Truth and Justice Commission

The last half-century has seen a number of courts and tribunals set up to remedy the greatest crimes that have faced humanity. These crimes have been committed by governments specifically and thus they require special mediation that almost always involves outside governments or international organizations. This tendency is what makes Argentina's own court Conadep (Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas, or National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) so unique in its application. Conadep was the recent focus of an Al Jazeera op-ed article talking about its recent success compared to some of the other truth and justice commissions that have sprung up over the last few decades. The concept of truth and justice commissions began of course with Nuremberg and was heavily influenced by Western models and external governments in relation to Germany. Conadep was much the antithesis of that in that its proceedings were carried out almost exclusively by the Argentine government. Specifically, Conadep has been unique in that it is committed to both the justice and truth aspects of the trials and have not emphasized one over the other. This has not always been the case in regards to other commissions, in particular with regard to the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, the prosecutions against even the most obviously guilty individuals have not been binding in most cases. The emphasis of the article itself was focused on how Conadep was linked to Argentina's transition toward democracy after years of dictatorial military rule. The author contended that without truth AND justice being priorities of these commissions, countries in these circumstances would have a difficulty moving forward.

This relates intimately toward US foreign policy due to the fact that the US is either deeply involved in truth and justice commissions that have formed recently (such examples are Rwanda, Cambodia, and the former Yugoslavia) or were involved in the atrocities which were carried out by such dictatorial governments that led up to these trials being necessary (examples of such would be Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Chile to just name a few). That being said, the US should pay close attention to the Conadep model and take note of the importance of nationally supported tribunals rather than Western ones being applicable to all cases.