What happens after a Truth Commission? Follow-ups to the TRCs in Norway and Canada

One of the most important legacies of truth commission are their recommendations. Recommendations made by these temporary non-judicial fact-seeking bodies to their respective governments are designed to redress the harm documented in the truth commissions’ final reports and to prevent similar harms from occurring in the future. This paper examines the recommendations made by the Canadian and Norwegian truth commissions and their implementation record. Both commissions were set down recently by their respective governments to examine historical wrongs committed against indigenous minorities (and also national minorities, in the case of Norway) and were tasked with making recommendation to amend these wrongs. Applying a theoretical framework developed to assess implementation and based on desk study and survey material, we find that the implementation process in Canada has so far been more systematic and has brought more visible results than the twin process in Norway. We argue that this is, in part, due to the absence of a follow-up mechanisms in Norway and the lack public visibility, but also due to the design and formulation of the recommendations themselves. Where the Canadian government has assigned responsibility for the implementation and follow-up of the recommendations, the process in Norway has been much less government driven. Implementation in the Norwegian context has therefore – so far – been left in the hands of civil society and interest organisations.