Varieties of Truth Commission Recommendations in Latin America

Truth commissions have become an indispensable part of the transitional justice tool-kit in recent years. The anticipated impact of such commissions is usually related to two things: the issuing of a report and the implementation of the recommendations made in this reports. Yet, there is scarce scholarly knowledge about when and why what kinds of recommendations are in effect implemented. Hypothesizing that the type of recommendation may matter for implementation, this paper provides a broad comparative overview of the types of truth commission recommendations around Latin America. Based on a detailed analysis of 13 truth commission reports issued in 11 different countries between 1985 and 2014, we develop a typology of recommendations and code for various characteristics of recommendations. Through this, we can identify patterns in recommendation design across cases. In addition, we can identify how the formulation of truth commission recommendations has changed over time.