A/HRC/21/46 B. Victim-centred approach 54. Resolution 18/7 requires the Special Rapporteur to “integrate a victim-centered approach throughout the work of the mandate”, which he intends to do in an effective, hands-on manner. In addition to the requirement stated in the resolution, the Special Rapporteur hopes that the arguments offered above provide further motivation for doing so. First, the argument has emphasized that the implementation of the measures can be construed as having as their goals providing recognition to victims, fostering trust and strengthening the democratic rule of law. None of this can happen on the backs of victims, without their meaningful participation. Such meaningful participation can take different forms. To illustrate, truth-seeking requires the active participation of individuals who wish to express their grievances and report on the facts and underlying causes of the violations and abuses which occurred. Truth-seeking will only be regarded a justice measure if civil society, in particular victims organizations, is adequately represented in the composition of a truth commission. Prosecutions, for their part, can only serve as actual justice measures if the victims and their families are effectively involved in the processes and provided with the necessary information relevant to their participation in proceedings. Local or traditional methods of rendering justice, when compliant with international fair trial guarantees, can reach out to the local population so they recognize them as “justice”. Reparations will only be successful if victims and civil society at large have been involved in the design of the schemes, so the measures are commensurate to the harm inflicted and contribute to the recognition of the victim as rights holders. Regarding guarantees of non-recurrence, institutional and personnel reform needs to have a firm grounding in the views of the population and specifically of the victims, who should be actively involved in the related processes so that legislation and institutions are built to prevent future violations and public officials selected in a manner in which the principle of the rule of law is given force. 55. Second, reconciliation is not to be conceived as a substitute for justice. In many parts of the world, reconciliation has been used by members of predecessor regimes as a demand for victims to forgive and forget and, therefore, as a way of placing one more burden on the victims. Third, one of the distinctive characteristics of a comprehensive approach is precisely that it places special emphasis on the centrality of victims; in addition to the progress that has been achieved of late in victim participation in criminal justice procedures, with the Rome Statute representing significant progress in this respect, truth commissions, especially but not exclusively those that follow the now well-entrenched trend to hold public hearings afford many opportunities to make victims visible, to give them a well-deserved space in the public sphere. Of all transitional justice measures, reparations programmes are designed to do something not just against perpetrators but on behalf of victims directly. Guarantees of non-recurrence, particularly some of the practical ways in which they are manifested, serve victims, for example, by sparing them the agony of having to deal with the same security officers that had abused them before. 56. Since a victim-centred approach is not merely a matter of argument but of practice, it must also be said that here that the systematization of experiences in dealing with participatory and consultation processes across the four measures under the mandate is one of the specific topics the Special Rapporteur intends to tackle throughout his term. 57. Finally, in operational terms, the Special Rapporteur has already initiated consultations with civil society organizations, including victims’ organizations. He will certainly continue this in the more formal regional consultations that the Special Rapporteur is organizing and the country visits he will undertake under the mandate. 17