« Italian colonialism and settler colonialism: A History of Italian Colonialism: The Promised Land, Giuseppe Finaldi, Routledge, 2026
The place of place learning: Samantha Lancaster, ‘Experiencing Indigenous Spaces Available to Purchase’, in Hongyu Wang, Jo Flory (eds), Curriculum as Lived: Currere, Mindfulness, and Nonviolent CompanionshipAvailable to Purchase, Emerald, 2025 »

Commissioning ‘the truth’: Sara Amighetti, ‘Truth commissions in the decolonisation context: a philosophical appraisal’, Rethinking History, 2025

25Oct25

Abstract: This paper offers a philosophical appraisal of the role truth commissions might play in addressing the legacy of colonial injustice in contexts that do not fit the paradigmatic model of transitional justice. In recent years, calls for redress in democratic settler states have prompted interest in the extension of transitional justice mechanisms beyond post-conflict or post-authoritarian societies. Yet this extension raises two important challenges. The scope challenge concerns whether transitional justice is conceptually suited to settings without political rupture, while the bootstrapping challenge questions whether institutions shaped by liberal assumptions can adequately respond to structural and ongoing forms of colonial violence. The paper analyses the normative and conceptual stakes of these challenges, drawing on recent work in political theory and the Indigenous studies. While acknowledging the limits of the transitional justice paradigm, it argues that truth commissions may still contribute to processes of historical reckoning—particularly by enabling practices of collective unlearning and public confrontation with inherited structures.


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