A/HRC/24/42
of internal differentiation and harmonious integration are anticipated and resolved as much
as possible.
70.
Finally, truth commissions have often found it challenging to articulate the
relationship between the commissioners. This issue inevitably involves a personal
dimension, hence it is even less likely than the previously mentioned topics to be resolved
through a formulaic approach. However, some structural factors can exacerbate potential
frictions. A non-exhaustive list includes the following:
• Appointment procedures that sacrifice competence for the sake of
representativeness. These risk introducing into the nucleus of the commission
prevailing political or social cleavages.
• Loose internal regulations, or a protracted period before internal regulations are
defined, which allow each commissioner to carve out his or her own functions
independently of a coherent, shared plan.
• Ambiguous rules concerning the public role of commissioners and the authority to
speak on its behalf.
• Unclear rules concerning relations between commissioners and different
stakeholders both within and outside government.
• Commissioners that act ad honorem and only part time, and who therefore need to
keep their regular occupations, and hence allegiances to particular constituencies.
C.
Ex post challenges
1.
Implementation
71.
Truth commissions have become the subject of increased criticism for the lack of
follow-up on their recommendations. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that truth
commissions are only in exceptional cases and in relation to only few initiatives,
implementing agencies. As temporary bodies, most commissions will have ceased to exist
at the time of implementation of their recommendations, a responsibility that lies primarily
with governments.
(a)
Articulating recommendations
72.
The call for comprehensiveness regarding analysis and proposals for thorough
institutional restructuring has led to a significant expansion in the length of commission
reports, which poses a problem for them being used as policymaking tools.83 The main
difficulty, however, is that in a short timespan no commission can make its
recommendations on institutional design involving political, economic and legal
dimensions truly “policy friendly”. In some cases, complex legislative action is not all that
is required; constitutional reforms may also be necessary.84
83
84
20
Again, even if not linear, the expansion in length of truth commission reports has led to documents
that virtually no policymaker will read in their entirety: the shortest report is that of the Commission
on Truth for El Salvador, at 252 pages; CONADEP’s report was less than 500 pages long; Chile’s
TRC more than 1,100 pages; South Africa’s TRC more than 4500; Peru’s TRC almost 8,000; Sierra
Leone’s TRC almost 1,900; East Timor’s CAVR more than 3200; Liberia’s TRC almost 1,400.
Indeed, Sierra Leone’s TRC suggests the country should consider “the creation of a new
constitution”, TRC of Sierra Leone, Witness to Truth (fn 40), vol. 2, ch. 3, para. 38.
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