Lustration

Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 – 1991. It also applies more broadly to the process of nations' dealing with past human rights abuses or injustices that have occurred. The term is taken from the Roman lustrum purification rituals.