In order to understand why several societies pass a significant time span before coming to terms with the past three hypotheses are tested on the balance of power, the degree of human rights violations and civil-military reforms in Uruguay, Panama and Ghana. The results are controlled by the analysis of truth commissions in Argentina, South Africa and Haiti that were directly set up after the transition. Further the author proposes a mere theoretical debate about the categorization of “delayed” truth commissions within transitional justice.
