Existing studies have identified a range of positive benefits and negative consequences of truth-telling for victims; however, the reasons why some victims experience a sense of healing while others do not after participating in post-conflict truth commission processes continue  to remain unclear. Hence, to address one piece of this complex puzzle, this book explores the illuminating question: What pathways lead from truth-telling to victim healing in post-conflict settings? One answer, this book argues, may be voice.  Building on the proposition that having voice-a key component of procedural justice-can help individuals to overcome the disempowerment and marginalisation of victimisation, this book investigates voice as a causal mechanism that can create pathways toward healing within truth commission public hearings.  

Comparative, empirical studies that investigate how truth-telling contributes to victim healing in post-conflict settings are scarce in the field of transitional justice and this book begins to fill an important gap in the existing body of literature. From a practical standpoint, by enhancing understanding of how truth commissions can promote healing, the findings and arguments in Victim Healing and Truth Commissions: Transforming Pain Through Voice in the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste provide insight into how the design of transitional justice processes may be improved in the future to better respond to the needs of victims of mass violence.