A/HRC/36/50/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 18/7, in which the Council asked the Special Rapporteur to undertake a study, in cooperation with and reflecting the views of, inter alia, States and relevant United Nations bodies and mechanisms, international and regional organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, on the ways and means to implement the issues pertaining to the mandate. 2. The purpose of the present report is to describe the most important advances in transitional justice and to assess the current challenges facing its implementation. 3. In preparation for the present report, the Special Rapporteur organized five regional consultations, which gathered representatives of Member States, United Nations agencies, regional organizations and civil society organizations. The purpose was to understand the regional specificities of transitional justice and to create a space where actors from each region could share priorities, lessons learned and good practices. The consultations took place in: Cairo (7-9 November 2012); Buenos Aires (11-13 December 2012); Kampala (6-8 November 2013); Berlin (14-15 May 2014); and Colombo (9-10 November 2016). The Special Rapporteur thanks all of the participants, the Governments of the host countries for their collaboration with the meetings and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its support of this endeavour. 4. Subsequently, the Special Rapporteur requested written contributions from United Nations agencies, civil society organizations and Member States. He is grateful for the cooperation of the following Member States: Honduras, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States of America. He also thanks for their assistance OHCHR, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Department of Political Affairs, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General and the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect. OHCHR, UNDP and UN-Women, which jointly funded an expert meeting where the contents of this report were discussed, deserve particular recognition. Finally, he acknowledges the contributions from the civil society organizations and individuals listed in the annex. II. Regional approaches to transitional justice A. Latin America 5. The measures which would come to be known as transitional justice emerged first in Latin American countries in their transitions away from authoritarian rule in the 1980s. Latin America has pioneered the model of transitional justice, developing a high degree of specialized expertise. Civil society, especially victims’ groups, have played central roles in pushing States to recognize their obligations, relying on citizen activism, litigation in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, cross-national networking and raising public awareness through cultural expression. 6. Argentina and Chile remain signal examples of the potential achievements of transitional justice. As Argentina transitioned away from authoritarian rule in 1983, it adopted initiatives to address the needs of victims and to strengthen its nascent democracy. These included a National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons that sought to establish the facts concerning enforced disappearances, leading to the establishment of State-run reparations programmes. The transition in Argentina included trials in 1985 of the military juntas on charges of systematic human rights violations, leading to sentences from four and a half years to life for six generals. However, in 1986/1987, prosecutorial efforts were halted, and in 1989 Presidential pardons were granted owing to military backlash and 3