The Historical Relevance and Socio-political Function of the Brazilian Truth Commission (2012-2014) and Reception of the Final Report
African, American and Oceania Studies
Final Report Abstract
The overarching Research Question of the project is: What has been the Historical Relevance and Socio-political Function of the National Truth Commission (2012-2014) in Brazil? To answer the question, the project is grouped into three subsections: a) Report Analysis, b) Reception of the Report, and c) the Report’s historical Relevance and socio-political Function. Report Analysis: The Final Report – a voluminous 3,383-page document – is divided into three volumes: the first is a collective text signed by all six commissioners. It uncovers the military chain of command and links the crimes to high-ranking officials (including Brazilian Presidents!). The second volume presents findings from the commissions’ working groups for which no consensus was reached among the commissioners. It entails some novel topics: crimes against women, the indigenous population, rural workers, homosexuals, and corporate complicity. The fact that these new victim groups (e. g. indigenous) were not integrated in the first volume unleashed a lot of criticism. Yet conversations with the staff responsible for the writing-up of the report revealed that these groups were not omitted for ideological-political reasons, but rather (or also) as the result of pragmatic-procedural reasons (e.g. difficulties to find a consensus among the commissioners, lack of time or evidence). The report’s third volume is a case-by-case analysis of crimes committed against political opponents and it appears to be copied from a 2007 human rights report. It presents 434 cases and names 377 names of civilian and military perpetrators. Both numbers are conservative estimates and may increase with future research (or decisions: e.g. if indigenous victims were to be included). The report ends with 29 courageous recommendations that have been praised by politically diverse groups. Most importantly, the NTC recommends: to obey international human rights legislation (to punish the perpetrators) and to reform the police and military institutions. In sum, a preliminary analysis reveals that the report is largely based on previous reports (offering relatively little new information), yet it provides a systematized and official document on the systematic state crimes of the regime (high symbolic value). Reception of the Report: The immediate reception of the report (and the commission) varied among different groups. In the larger public, the report received little notice and was soon forgotten. Most interviewees including victim families were positively surprised, for they had very low expectations to begin with. Most interviewees also praised the recommendations. Report’s historical relevance and socio-political function: The Rousseff government has completely ignored the recommendations and after Dilma’s discharge (impeachment) the situation has worsened, as Bolsonaro took a U-turn in memory politics trying to revise school curricula and officially celebrate the military regime. Still, the government’s complete failure to respond to the recommendation (not even in their discourses) and Bolsonaro’s victory in 2018 indicate that the report’s overall meaning is minimal.
Publications
- ‘Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil: The Double-Edged Role of cultural-artistic Production’, Latin American Perspectives, vol. 43, no. 5 (2016): 12-28 [Honorary Mention für besten Artikel 2016, Latin American Studies Associations (LASA) Brazil Section]
Nina Schneider und Rebecca Atencio
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X16647715) - ‘Transitional Justice in Brasilien’, in Handbuch Transitional Justice, (Hg.) Anja Mihr, Gerd Pickel und Susanne Pickel (Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017), 457-74
Nina Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02392-8_30) - ‘Transitional Justice: Historische Aufarbeitung und Geschichtsschreibung’, in: Handbuch Transitional Justice, (Hg.) Anja Mihr, Gerd Pickel und Susanne Pickel (Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017), 105-124
Nina Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02392-8_6) - The Brazilian National Truth Commission (2012-2014) in local, national and global Perspective (Oxford and New York: Berghahn, 2019)
Nina Schneider, Hg.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789200041) - ‘Introduction: The Brazilian National Truth Commission (2012- 2014) in local, national and global perspective’, in: The Brazilian National Truth Commission (2012-2014) in local, national and global perspective, (Hg.) N. Schneider (Oxford/New York: Berghahn, 2019), 1-33
Nina Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789200041-003) - ‘Professional Historical Writing and Human Rights Engagement in the twenty-first Century: Innovative Approaches and their Dilemmas’, in: The Engaged Historian: Perspectives on the Intersections of Politics, Activism and the historical Profession (Making Sense of History Series), (Hg.) Stefan Berger (New York: Berghahn, 2019), 205-20
Nina Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789202007-011) - ‘Bolsonaro in Power: Failed Memory Politics in postauthoritarian Brazil?! ’, in: in: Coming to terms with the Past, Modern Languages Open (2020): 1–12
Nina Schneider
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.324)
