TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 5

Chapter 7

Subsection 3

THE COMMISSION’S DATABASE

Preamble

17. The Commission created and maintained a database to manage the data requirements of the three Committees. The database was used to register human rights violations statements and amnesty applications as they were lodged with the Commission, after which teams of data processors stored the names of the victims, the violations they suffered and details of the alleged perpetrators. During the life of the Commission, the database was upgraded to assist with the management of the work of the Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee. It is still being used by the staff of the President's Fund today to record disbursements made.

18. By the time the Commission closed, the database had become a rich repository of information about the nature, scale, location, dates, types and consequences of violations of human rights suffered by South Africans. As such, it is an essential primary source of valuable historical material, which must be made accessible to future generations.

Data provision

19. The Commission recommends that the database be owned, managed and maintained by the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa, who must take responsibility for ensuring that the database:

a forms the cornerstone of an electronic repository of historical materials concerning the work of the Commission;

b is enriched by electronic multi-media facilities to support audio-visual and other graphic materials;

c is in a format that allows for distribution to schools, other educational institutions and the general public by means of CD-ROM or other portable electronic format, and

d uses language that is accessible to the majority of South Africans.

Data reconciliation

20. The work of the Amnesty Committee continued after that of the Human Rights Violations (HRV) Committee had been completed, so a process of data re conciliation is necessary to compare and contrast the victims and violations described in Amnesty applications with those gathered by the HRV Committee. The Commission recommends that:

a the database be updated with the victim and violation details from the transcripts of amnesty hearings which, for security reasons, were not always recorded on the database prior to the hearing, and

b the details of the victims and violations mentioned in each amnesty application be reconciled with those recorded by the HRV Committee, to ensure that every victim in need of reparation and rehabilitation is identified and noted.

Database conversion

21. The Commission’s database is a custom-built system whose functionality was designed primarily to record victims and violations to support the work of the three Committees. Its current format does not lend itself easily to use by researchers or the general public.

22. The Commission therefore recommends that the database:

a be converted to run on technology best suited for Internet-based, read-only access, using open-source software wherever possible;

b be web-enabled in a user- friendly, searchable format, and

c have facilities for extracting the data for further research and analysis.