On August 9, 2012, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of nonrecurrence Pablo de Greiff presented the first annual report to the Human Rights Council. The report provides an overview of key activities undertaken by the Special Rapporteur between May 1 and July 25, reviews the foundations of the mandate and outlines the strategy for its implementation.
In the overview of activities, the report charts de Greiff’s consultations with a great number of experts, civil society organizations and UN bodies about the priorities and strategies for fulfilling the mandate. It details his involvement in discussions centered on transitional justice approaches, including recent meetings on complementarity held in Stockholm and the regional meeting on prevention of torture held in Rabat.
During the reporting period, de Greiff, together with the Special Rapporteur on torture, addressed a letter to the government of Brazil, offering support and technical assistance for its work on the National Truth Commission. He received an invitation to visit Uruguay and sent requests for country visits to Guatemala, Guinea, Nepal and Spain.
The report makes several recommendations to the Council on the need for stronger theoretical and practical links between truth, justice, reparation, and nonrecurrence. It recognizes the important relation of these mechanisms with other sectors, including security and development.
In addition, the report explains that the Special Repporteur’s mandate aims to assist in providing recognition to victims and argues that the rule of law be understood not just through its ultimate aim of social order, but through the particular aims of trust, recognition and reconciliation.
In the implementation strategy for the mandate, De Greiff points to the need for a victim-centered approach, and the importance of integrating a gender perspective as means of ensuring success of transitional justice mechanisms.
Pablo de Greiff was appointed by the Human Rights Council in 2011 as the first Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of nonrecurrence. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur concentrates on transitional justice measures including “individual prosecutions, reparations, truth-seeking, institutional reform, vetting of public employees and officials, or an appropriately conceived combination thereof.”
The full text of the report is available here.
