By observing the political transition in countries that have experienced an authoritarian regime or civil conflict during the years 1980-90, to be interpreted under the paradigm of truth, it is intended to determine how truth and power are articulated in the truth commission. This paradigm assigns to the truth notions such as human suffering, democracy, reconciliation and human rights, and it seems to privilege the truth commission as a transition model for reconciliation and healing of society. Based on restorative principles and justified by the discourse of trauma, the committee establishes an inquiry that has the confession of victims and perpetrators as a means to affirm a truth. This inquiry is assumed as a ritual of transition from a violent past to a future of democracy. In this ritual the act of confession sets new social roles of victims and perpetrators and, consequently, new power relations, necessary for the restoration of social relations and political reconstruction of the country. In order to better interpret this articulation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, an emblematic case in the development of this paradigm, truth/reconciliation and healing, is examined. It is intended to contribute to a critical analysis of this transition model: what it imposes and what alternatives it excludes. This study is based on Foucault s perspective, according to which the production of truth is a way of governing subjects, and the avowal is a technique of producing true.