The Historical Relevance and Socio-political Function of the Brazilian Truth Commission (2012-2014): Reception of the Final Report

本研究项目的重点是巴西国家真相委员会（以下简称NTC）的最终报告，计划于2014年12月。巴西长期以来对其军事历史保持沉默，这与人权问责制的全球趋势背道而驰。全国过渡委员会的最终报告将是关于巴西军事独裁统治期间（1964-1985年）国家工作人员系统性侵犯人权行为的第一份全面的官方报告，可以全面查阅机密文件。然而，在其两年的任期内（2012-2014年），全国过渡委员会受到了各种利益集团的批评，其工作严重受到委员们内部冲突的影响。该项目的主要目标是评估NTC的历史相关性和社会政治功能。为此，本项目追求两个具体的中间目标：(1)对《最终报告》进行深入分析；(2)调查和解释主要利益集团对《最终报告》短期和中期的不同接受程度。这两个步骤对于回答仍然未知的问题是必要的：全国过渡委员会的主要目的、目标和总体社会政治功能是什么？最终，NTC是否与巴西社会有感知和事实上的历史关联，如果有，具体涉及哪些领域（例如受害者国家关系，国际声誉，警察和司法系统内部的变化等）？为了回答这些问题，本项目将采用以下方法：(1)对报告发布仪式的深度媒体分析，以及对包括政府、真相委员会官方网页和人权组织在内的主要利益团体的持续媒体分析和网站监测；(2)对全国过渡委员会最终报告的深度文本分析（内容、叙述、语气、主要收礼人、行话）；(3)对与最终报告相关的官方和民间社会事件的参与观察；(4)与已经确定的关键人物进行访谈，包括国家真相委员会成员、地方真相委员会成员和幸存者。该项目的预期结果是对最终报告及其接受情况进行基于经验的全面研究，并全面评估NTC在巴西与独裁统治的研究不足、旷日持久的清算历史中的社会政治相关性和功能。该项目的理论贡献是测试真相委员会的其他评估标准，包括委员会的公众接受程度和最终报告对知识的贡献。

This research project focuses on the Final Report of the Brazilian National Truth Commission (hereafter NTC), scheduled for December 2014. Brazil has long silenced its military past contrary to the global trend to human rights accountability. The NTC's Final Report will be the first comprehensive official report about the systematic human rights violations committed by State agents during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) with full access to classified documents. During its two year mandate (2012-2014), the NTC has, however, been criticized from various interest groups, and its work was severely compromised by internal conflicts among the commissioners.The project's main objective is to evaluate the historical relevance and socio-political function of the NTC. To that end, the project pursues two specific intermediate goals: to (1) provide an indepth analysis of the Final Report, and (2) investigate and explain its varying short and medium term reception among key interest groups. These two steps are necessary to answer what still remains unknown: What were the NTC's prime purpose, addressees, and its overall sociopolitical function? Ultimately, was the NTC of both perceived and de facto historical relevance for the Brazilian society, and if so, for which areas specifically (e.g. victim-state relations, international reputation, changes within the police and justice system, etc.)? To answer these questions the project will employ the following methods: (1) in depth media analysis of the ceremony of presentation of the Report and continuous media analysis and websites monitoring of key interest groups including the government, the Truth Commissions official webpage, and human rights groups, (2) in depth text analysis of the NTC's Final Report (content, narrative, tone, prime addressee, jargon), (3) participant observation in official and civil-society events related to the Final Report, (4) conduct interviews with already identified key protagonists including members of the National Truth Commission, the local truth committees, and survivors.The expected outcome of the project is an empirically based, comprehensive study of the Final Report, its reception, and an overall evaluation of the NTC's socio-political relevance and function in Brazil's underresearched, protracted reckoning history with the dictatorship. The project's theoretical contribution is to test alternative evaluation criteria for truth commissions including the commission's public acceptance and the Final Report's contribution to knowledge.