Comments
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence has issued a report relating to truth commissions and recently presented it to the Human Rights Council. According to the press release, the Special Rapporteur contends that "truth commissions have made significant contributions to transitional processes" but "face various challenges which can lead to the non-implementation of recommendations," such as "overly broad mandates, flawed choices of commissioners, and insufficient and unreliable funding streams." The Special Rapporteur further maintains that truth commissions largely derive their power from the moral authority and expertise of their commissioners and therefore recommends that States "prioritize expertise over partisan political affiliation and ethnic identities, as the latter will likely result in tracking prevailing political or social cleavages." In the report, the Special Rapporteur also "discusses concerns about lack of follow-up to truth commissions' recommendations, the importance of archives and cultural interventions.