The work of a truth commission does not end when its final recommendations are released. During my Post-TRRC experience, I have been researching what happens next and what it takes to turn recommendations into meaningful change.
When I began my Post-TRRC experience, I knew I would be doing research. I did not expect to learn so much from this research about what really happens after a truth commission finishes its work.
The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) investigated human rights violations committed in The Gambia during Yahya Jammeh's rule. The Commission submitted 265 recommendations to the Gambian government in 2021. The government accepted most of those recommendations in its 2022 White Paper and released an Implementation Plan in 2023. The plan outlines how the recommendations are supposed to be carried out.
My work has primarily focused on understanding that process.
Over the summer, I have written several research papers examining different parts of the Implementation Plan. Each paper focuses on a different issue. I have looked at prisons, the Junglers, and the April 10–11, 2000 student demonstrations. Although these topics are different, they raised the same question for me: What does it actually take to turn a recommendation into change?
At first, I approached the Implementation Plan as a document that needed to be summarized. The more I worked with it, the more I realized that the details matter.
For example, the prison section of the Implementation Plan contains recommendations that address much more than just the prison buildings. It calls for better training for prison officers, improved healthcare, rehabilitation programs, reduced pretrial detention, stronger inspections, better infrastructure, and accountability for torture. That changed the way I thought about institutional reform. A problem that appears to involve one institution can involve many others. Improving prisons can require changes to the justice system, healthcare system, government budgets, and training programs. It also requires accountability for people who committed abuses. I saw a similar pattern when I researched the Junglers. The Implementation Plan includes prosecutions for crimes committed by the Junglers, but it also includes human rights education for the military and the development of national forensic capacity to identify disappeared people. This showed me why implementation cannot be measured only by the number of people prosecuted. Accountability matters, but so does changing the institutions that allow abuses to happen.
The research on the April 2000 student demonstrations gave me another perspective. The TRRC found that security forces used excessive force against students, resulting in deaths, injuries, and arrests. The Implementation Plan responds with proposed prosecutions, police training, improved crowd-control practices, complaint mechanisms, and better communication between students and public authorities. That connection stood out to me. The goal is not only to address what happened in 2000. It is also to reduce the possibility of something similar happening again.
Doing this research has also changed how I approach research itself. I have had to read government documents closely, compare recommendations with proposed actions, and organize large amounts of information into something understandable. I have learned that research is not simply finding information. It is deciding what information matters and explaining why.
Writing about the Implementation Plan has also made me more aware of the difference between a plan and its implementation. A document can identify important reforms and provide clear activities, but those activities still require people, funding, coordination, and political commitment. My research on the Junglers, for example, found that prosecutions, forensic investigations, and specialized training depend on long-term resources and inter-institutional cooperation.
That is one of the biggest lessons I have taken from this experience.
The TRRC created a record of what happened. Its recommendations identified what needed to change. The Implementation Plan explains many of the steps the government intends to take. But the process does not end with writing those steps down.
My Post-TRRC experience has allowed me to see transitional justice from a different perspective. I am not only studying past human rights violations. I am studying the work that comes after them. That work can be less visible. It involves reading documents, checking recommendations, organizing information, and asking difficult questions about whether proposed reforms address the problems identified by the TRRC.
For me, that has been the value of this experience. I have learned how research can help connect a historical record to the work of institutional reform. I have also learned that meaningful change requires more than acknowledging what happened. It requires continued work to address why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again.
Tinaishe Kanyongo is a University of Dayton student majoring in political science and criminal justice studies, with a minor in Africana studies. Tina is interested in human rights, government, history, and law. An intern with the Human Rights Center, Tinaishe is expected to graduate in 2029.