South Africa's reputation of oppression and violent conflict placed it among countries that have been the benchmark for horrific abuses of human rights in the 20th century. In this the 21st century, South Africa is viewed as the benchmark for peace, humanity and compassionate leadership. We therefore are privileged to be celebrating Archbishop Tutu as the symbol of that leadership for peaceful justice and reconciliation in this conference.

'Reflecting on 10 Years of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission' brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars from across the globe to critically examine core issues related to truth commissions, transitional justice, and how individuals and societies heal after violent intergroup conflict and mass atrocities. In the ten years since its establishment, the TRC has been replicated in more than a dozen post-conflict settings globally. This conference is an important event to raise the level of public dialogue about truth commissions as mechanisms of transitional justice, to examine the core concepts on which truth commissions are established and to explore some of the challenges associated with the attempt to create peace and democratic governance after conflict.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Vamik Volkan, is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is the Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. A founding former President of both the International Society of Political Psychology and the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction, Dr Volkan became a member of the ten member Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission, and served as facilitator for a group of adult children of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazi perpetrators whose dialogue has continued for more than ten years. For this and similar processes he initiated across the globe, for his outstanding contribution to the understanding of the psychology of racism and genocide and for leading interdisciplinary dialogue on the causes of group conflict and on the strategies for resolving these conflicts, Dr. Volkan has been nominated for the second year in a row for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Volkan is author or co-author of 24 books, including The Need to Have Enemies and Allies, Bloodlines from Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism, and Third Reich in the Unconscious. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Turkish.