A/HRC/21/46 4. Strengthening the rule of law 40. Promoting the rule of law is one of the aims frequently attributed to transitional justice measures. As an illustration, virtually all truth commissions to date have used the concept both in an explanatory role (lack of respect for the principles of the rule of law is one of the factors leading to the rights violations under scrutiny) and as one of the objects of their work (their recommendations are intended to strengthen the rule of law). 22 Scholars largely agree both about the centrality of the concept and the usefulness of transitional justice measures in efforts to re-establish the rule of law. 23 Resolution 18/7 follows suit, declaring that the comprehensive implementation of the four elements aims to “promote the rule of law in accordance with international human rights law” (preambular para. 12). 41. To illustrate the contribution of the various aspects of the mandate to the rule of law, the Special Rapporteur outlines a number of examples. 24 Criminal trials that offer sound procedural guarantees and that do not exempt from the reach of justice those who wield power demonstrate the generality of law; truth-seeking exercises that contribute to understanding the many ways in which legal systems failed to protect the rights of citizens provide the basis on which, a contrario, legal systems can behave in the future; reparations programmes that try to redress the violation of rights serve to exemplify, even if ex post facto, the commitment to the notion that legal norms matter; institutional and personnel reform measures, even those basic reforms consisting merely of the screening and dismissing of those who abused their positions, increase the integrity of rule of law systems. 42. Furthermore, the implementation of transitional justice measures plays a strong catalytic role in the process of civil society organization. 25 There is sufficient international experience with transitional justice measures now to assert confidently that one of the virtually inevitable consequences of even putting one of these measures for discussion on the public agenda in a country – let alone implementing one such programme – is the formation of a plethora of civil society organizations. This is as true of reparations measures as it is of truth commissions, and as true in South Africa as it is in Morocco and Peru. A strong civil society is not only important in order to guarantee broad local ownership of transitional justice measures, but, more generally, it is an important correlate of the rule of law and its absence a common legacy of systematic rights violations; certain types of violations are, precisely, intended in part to impede the free operation of civil society including in the public sphere for that impedes the coalescence of effective peaceful opposition. 26 By contrast, catalysing the organization of groups is empowering, at least in 22 23 24 25 26 See, for example, Security Council report entitled, “From Madness to Hope: The 12-year War in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador”, S/25500, chapter VTruth and Reconciliation Commission, “Institutional Hearing: The Legal Community” in Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report (London, Macmillan Reference Limited, 1998), esp. vol. 4, chap. 4; Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliación of Peru, “Los factores que hicieron posible la violencia”, vol. VIII, No. 2, in Informe Final (Lima, Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliación, 2003), esp. chap. 1, part 4. See, e.g. Ruti Teitel, “Transitional Jurisprudence: The Role of Law in Political Transformation”, Yale Law Journal, vol. 106, No. 7 (1997), pp. 2009–2080. See also the Special Rapporteur’s forthcoming report to the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session. For the example of Peru, see Lisa Magarrell and Julie Guillerot, Reparaciones en la Transición Peruana: Memorias de un Proceso Inacabado, chap. 6. As Hannah Arendt puts it, “totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities”. The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2nd ed. (Harcourt Inc., 2009) p. 475. 13