A/HRC/34/62 violations that typically affect women the most. Requiring those responsible for making this decision not only to articulate the principles on the basis of which they decide but to do so with the participation of victims is a useful way to prevent the most egregious exclusions. 60. Finally, it bears repeating that there is a scandalous lack of reparation programmes implemented for victims. Most Governments that face calls for reparations argue that reparations are unaffordable. The fact that they make this claim absent any serious effort to quantify the costs should raise suspicions about the underlying rationale. The fact is that the relationship between socioeconomic development and reparations seems to be mediated by political factors: the likelihood that a country will establish a reparation programme for victims depends not only on economic factors, but on the presence of strong political coalitions in favour of such programmes. Civil society, victim groups included, are therefore a crucial factor in the adoption and implementation of reparation programmes. 4. Guarantees of non-recurrence 61. “Guarantees of non-recurrence” refers to a preventive function rather than a particular measure. That function can be satisfied by a broad array of measures, of which two recent reports of the Special Rapporteur give an overview. 47 For reasons of brevity, in the present report he will specifically address victim participation in security sector reform.48 62. Security sector reform, as a development concept, is seen mainly as a technical, forward-looking reform, generally unconcerned with allegedly retrospective questions of justice. Hence, the participation of victims in this context is rarely a topic for discussion. 63. To involve victims in security sector reform processes will not only be critical to ensure trust in the process, but will help to move from a regime-centred to a people-centred understanding of security.49 The participation of victims in a security sector reform process is likely to have the following advantages: (a) Victims know best the deficiencies of the security sector, as they have experienced those deficiencies themselves. Victims should therefore be consulted on requirements for reform. This could be undertaken either through broad-based consultations on transitional justice measures,50 or in the context of truth-seeking efforts. The Equity and Reconciliation Commission in Morocco, having examined more than 22,000 applications and having held public hearings with victims, recommended, inter alia, strengthening governance and oversight of the domestic security sector; 51 (b) On the basis of their specific experience, victims can make recommendations concerning, for example, the establishment of gender units in either police or prosecutorial services, or of specialized units to combat violations experienced by minorities, indigenous people or other vulnerable groups. In Sierra Leone, a gender unit was established upon the recommendation of victims; 47 48 49 50 51 See A/HRC/30/42 and A/70/438. For the area of constitution making, see, e.g., Jason Gluck and Michele Brant, Participatory and Inclusive Constitution Making: Giving Voices to the Demands of Citizens in the Wake of the Arab Spring. Available from www.usip.org/sites/default/files/PW105-Participatory-and-InclusiveConstitution-Making.pdf. Alexander Mayer-Rieckh, Dealing with the Past in Security Sector Reform, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, SSR Paper 10 (Geneva, 2013), p. 23. See A/71/567. Kingdom of Morocco Equity and Reconciliation Commission, Final Report, vol. 4 (Rabat, Advisory Council on Human Rights, 2009), p. 84. 15