A Truth Commission is one of the institutions used in international law to investigate gross human rights violations within a specific country. In this article we examine claims that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was therapeutic. In the absence of empirical evidence, this examination will be guided by a theoretical framework that will reflect ways by which we believe international legal institutions can contribute tot he healing of the people of a country in which human rights abuses have taken place. We developed this framework with reference to the literature. Our conclusion is that the legislator's emphasis on truth, reconciliation, stability, and restorative justice enhanced the TRC's potential to promote healing, but that some features of this procedure and the enabling Act, the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (1995), restricted its ability to be therapeutic. We conclude by looking at the role culture may have played in the success of the TRC.

The work-role salience of 96 first-year South African university students enrolled for career-directed and general degrees was investigated. Equal numbers of men and women and Afrikaans- and English-speaking students were included in each group. Students enrolled for career-directed degrees obtained significantly higher scores in all but one of the four comparisons on the 1973 Work-role Salience Scale of Greenhaus. There were no significant differences for sex or language group. The implications of these results for counseling students in tertiary South African educational institutions are considered.