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Seeking the Truth About Serious International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Violations: The Various Facets of a Cardinal Notion of Transitional Justice

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Book cover Armed Conflict and International Law: In Search of the Human Face

Abstract

The notion of truth and the search for it constitute central tenets of transitional justice processes and mechanisms in societies recovering from an armed conflict or from a period of large-scale human rights abuses. Truth lies at the heart of human nature, when victims of international human rights and humanitarian law violations want to know what happened. However, to date, the concept of truth seems to have suffered from the many assumptions that shape the emerging field of transitional justice. The most common of those is that truth should necessarily bring about reconciliation. Similarly the notion of truth would be a straightforward and simple concept. It is only recently that experts and scholars have begun to question such assumptions. Against this backdrop, this chapter therefore intends to go beyond the often oversimplified notion of truth in transitional justice. It seeks to explore some of the various and complex dimensions of the truth to better understand tensions that may exist when, for example, efforts favour the collective dimension of truth for a whole society over the needs of victims as individuals. This chapter then reviews to what extent some of the transitional justice mechanisms contribute to ascertaining the truth in its full complexity. Ultimately in as much as transitional justice requires a combination of mechanisms and processes to achieve its goals, this chapter will show that considering the many facets of the truth about past abuses is critical to ensure victims’ rights are respected.

The author is the Post-Conflict Legal Adviser at REDRESS in London.

The views expressed in this chapter are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of REDRESS.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Walker 2011.

  2. 2.

    United Nations Secretary-General 2004, para 8.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., para 25; McAdams 2011, pp. 304–305.

  4. 4.

    United Nations Secretary-General 2004, para 50.

  5. 5.

    Clark 2011, p. 248

  6. 6.

    Ibid., p. 241.

  7. 7.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2006, para 59.

  8. 8.

    Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia Mandate, enacted on May 12, 2005, by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly, Section 4 (c). http://trcofliberia.org/about/trc-mandate. Accessed 19 January 2012. The TRC Mandate is the Act That Established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia.

  9. 9.

    The scope of the issue of missing persons appears to be broader than that of disappearances, which are strictly speaking a human rights law matter. The latter term commonly refers to persons being abducted or killed by State agents of dictatorship regimes.

  10. 10.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2007, p. 32.

  11. 11.

    Brounéus 2010, p. 408.

  12. 12.

    Herman 2001, p. 1, quoted by Henri 2009, p. 122.

  13. 13.

    South African Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 26 July 1995, Act No. 34 (1995) - G16579, Section 3(1)(c). http://www.saflii.org/za/legis/num_act/ponuara1995477/. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  14. 14.

    IRIN 2012.

  15. 15.

    Clark 2011, pp. 247–249.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 242.

  17. 17.

    Boutruche 2010, para 6.

  18. 18.

    Henckaerts et al. 2005, p. 421.

  19. 19.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2006, para 5.

  20. 20.

    As noted in United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, supra note 19, para 8: “the ad hoc working group on human rights in Chile, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights developed an important doctrine on this right with regard to the crime of enforced disappearances”.

  21. 21.

    For an overview of the legal instruments, practice and jurisprudence recognising the right to the truth: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2006, supra note 19, paras 8–24.

  22. 22.

    United Nations Human Rights Council, Resolution 18/7 of 29 September 2011, A/HRC/18/L.22. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/18session/resolutions.htm. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  23. 23.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2006, para 35.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., para 37.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., para 38.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., para 39.

  27. 27.

    United Nations Human Rights Committee 1996, para 25.

  28. 28.

    Orentlicher 2005; Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005, A/RES/60/147. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/remedy.htm. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  29. 29.

    Orentlicher 2005, Principles 18 and 22 (b).

  30. 30.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2008.

  31. 31.

    Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia 2009, p. 353. See also p. 369.

  32. 32.

    Human Rights Watch 2009, p. 61.

  33. 33.

    Buergenthal 1994, p. 506.

  34. 34.

    Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia Mandate, supra note 8, Section 4 (a).

  35. 35.

    The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Rome, 17 July 1998, UN Doc. A/CONF.183/9, Article 7(1). http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/statute/romefra.htm. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  36. 36.

    Schabas 2000, p. 1.

  37. 37.

    The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, supra note 35, Article 6.

  38. 38.

    United Nations Secretary-General 2004, para 26.

  39. 39.

    Weinstein 2011, pp. 1–10.

  40. 40.

    Robins 2011, pp. 75–98; See also McDonald 2006, pp. 237–276.

  41. 41.

    Clark 2011, pp. 241, 242.

  42. 42.

    Doak 2011, p. 264.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., pp. 264, 265.

  44. 44.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2007, pp. 1–2.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., p. ii.

  46. 46.

    Ibid.

  47. 47.

    Doak 2011, p. 265.

  48. 48.

    United Nations Secretary-General 2004, para 25.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., respectively p. 17 and para 8.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., para 50.

  51. 51.

    Dancy et al. 2010, p. 47.

  52. 52.

    United Nations Secretary-General 2004, para 50.

  53. 53.

    James-Allen et al. 2010.

  54. 54.

    National Commission for truth justice and reconciliation 2005.

  55. 55.

    Pack and Zaptia 2011.

  56. 56.

    International Center for Transitional Justice 2009.

  57. 57.

    Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2010, pp. 478–480.

  58. 58.

    Amnesty International 2011.

  59. 59.

    Quoted by Clark 2011, p. 249.

  60. 60.

    Quoted by Clark 2011, p. 250.

  61. 61.

    Clark 2011, p. 250.

  62. 62.

    South African Constitutional Court, Azanian Peoples Organization (AZAPO) and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others, Case CCT 17/96, 25 July 1996, 1996 (8) BCLR 1015, para 21. http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1996/16.pdf. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  63. 63.

    Boutruche 2011, p. 115.

  64. 64.

    International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General 2005, p. 223; United Nations Human Rights Council 2009, p. 157.

  65. 65.

    See for example Article 1 of the Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Freetown, 16 January 2002. http://www.sc-sl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=uClnd1MJeEw%3D&. Accessed 19 January 2012.

  66. 66.

    Doak 2011, p. 264.

  67. 67.

    Clark 2011, p. 252.

  68. 68.

    Stover 2005, p. 11.

  69. 69.

    McDonald 2000, pp. 11–26.

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  1. REDRESS, London, UK

    Théo Boutruche

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  1. Théo Boutruche
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  1. De Bruynestraat 76, The Hague, 2597 RH, Netherlands

    Mariëlle Matthee

  2. , Faculty of Law,, University of Groningen, Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 26, Groningen, 9712 EK, Netherlands

    Brigit Toebes

  3. , Faculty of Law, University of Groningen, Oude Kijk in ‘t Jatstraat 26, Groningen, 9712 EK, Netherlands

    Marcel Brus

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Boutruche, T. (2013). Seeking the Truth About Serious International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Violations: The Various Facets of a Cardinal Notion of Transitional Justice. In: Matthee, M., Toebes, B., Brus, M. (eds) Armed Conflict and International Law: In Search of the Human Face. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-6704-918-4_12

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