A/HRC/36/50/Add.1 violation,39 the fate and whereabouts of the victim40 and, where appropriate, the process by which the alleged violation was officially authorized. 41 The right to truth should be understood to require States to establish institutions, mechanisms and procedures authorized to seek information about disputed events. 2. Truth commissions 53. One of the institutions that has risen to prominence in transitional justice processes is the truth commission. Successful truth commissions can give voice to victims, foster general social integration, help to set reform priorities and provide important information for other transitional justice measures. 54. There are contextual factors that make truth commissions an apt choice in postauthoritarian transitions: truth is a proper foil to the mantle of secrecy and denial under which authoritarian regimes exercise their power; the task of finding the truth is made feasible by the highly asymmetric use of violence, with the State being responsible for the majority of violations; and truth is also a reachable goal, a feasible first step towards a more comprehensive remedy, even in circumstances in which predecessor regimes maintain some capacity to destabilize the transition process. 55. In other contexts, including the post-conflict ones, truth commissions may still make important contributions to accountability, but their adequacy should be carefully assessed. The Special Rapporteur has devoted a report to truth commissions. 42 One point worth reiterating is that despite misconceptions since the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there is no intrinsic connection between truth commissions and amnesties. In Argentina, the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons was required to hand its information to prosecutors; in Chile, President Aylwin forwarded the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to prosecuting authorities; and in South Africa, those denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission could be prosecuted. The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was required to prepare cases for prosecution. The truth commissions in East Timor and Sierra Leone did not short circuit the possibility of moving cases to the criminal justice system, at least not by design. Countries need not choose between truth or justice. 56. Unofficial, civil society-led truth commissions have also made contributions to truth-seeking, with a notable example being the Catholic Church-led Recovery of Historical Memory Project in Guatemala (1998), which positively influenced the later, United Nations-sponsored Commission for Historical Clarification. 3. Other truth-seeking tools 57. As important as truth commissions have been, it would be a mistake to see them as the only tool for truth-seeking. In the case of the post-communist transitions, opening of the intelligence services’ archives was a critical means of exposing the truth. In Germany, the 1991 Stasi Records Act allowed controlled access to the Stasi archives. Archives remain highly relevant in other contexts as well, and their preservation in the face of intentional destruction or neglect is critical to a full accounting of the past. In Guatemala, police archives relating to its armed conflict were found decaying in an abandoned warehouse in 2005 in Guatemala City; since then, the documents have been digitized and have contributed to the prosecution of human rights cases. 58. International commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions are another method for truth-seeking. There have been more than fifty such efforts supported or undertaken by different organs of the United Nations in every region of the world. Their purpose is to 39 40 41 42 12 See E/CN.4/2006/91, para. 38. A/HRC/16/48, pp. 12-17. General Assembly resolution 60/147, annex, para. 24; and Myrna Mack Chang v. Guatemala, 25 November 2013, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, para. 274. A/HRC/24/42.