South Africa Establishes a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

South Africa experienced a seminal year in 1994. Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected majority president of South Africa, replacing the last president elected under the apartheid system, F. W. de Klerk. The change in leadership formally proclaimed the end of apartheid, the system of structural racism that had deprived black South Africans of their basic human rights since 1948. To pave the way for a new united and democratic South Africa and to prevent possible large-scale and violent race-based retribution, the newly elected Mandela took proactive steps to establish a transitional justice system. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created under the provisions of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act of 1995. The purpose of the TRC was to assess the human rights violations committed both by the apartheid regime and by those who engaged in struggles to overthrow that regime from March 1, 1961, to October 8, 1990.