A/HRC/34/62 on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is particularly emphatic. 23 It has formulated specific recommendations in relation to the planning and management of resettlement, reintegration, rehabilitation and reparation programmes; 24 recommended the adoption of temporary special measures for participation, such as quotas for women 25 and capacity-building programmes for women. 26 The importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in transitional justice efforts is also enshrined in landmark resolution 1325 (2000) of the Security Council on women, peace and security. C. Participation of victims in transitional justice measures 1. Truth commissions 36. It is easy to illustrate the important role of victim participation in transitional justice measures by reference to truth commissions. All truth commissions depend on the participation of victims primarily in statement-taking exercises, be they private (the majority) or public (in hearings). While civil society organizations provide commissions with information that is essential for the accounting of events and experts contribute essential analysis, what makes truth commissions distinctive is their reliance on testimony from the victims themselves. 37. While far from perfect, efforts by truth commissions to collect testimonies from victims have been impressive, particularly if one takes into account the effort to connect with a constituency that is generally geographically dispersed and, for good reasons, not immediately inclined to trust official mandates (even if truth commissions are independent). To illustrate the magnitude of the undertaking in terms of numbers, in the mid-1980s, the National Commission on the Disappeared in Argentina gathered 7,000 statements, 1,500 from survivors. 27 In the 1990s, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission took the testimonies of approximately 21,000 victims, of whom 2,000 appeared at public hearings. The Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Cote d’Ivoire, which submitted its report in December 2014 to the President, reportedly collected about 72,000 statements from victims, of whom some 28,000 were women and 750 children; 80 public hearings were held. 38. This does not mean, however, that the role of victims in truth commissions is limited to giving testimony. Victim participation has also proven to be important for commissions in the following circumstances: (a) Advocating for the adoption of transitional justice measures, including truth commissions. The road to justice in the aftermath of authoritarian repression, and especially of conflict, is rarely straight. Most transitional regimes can be expected at some point to waver in their commitments to justice, overestimating the risks of pursuing transitional justice policies or the threats they pose to the continuity of the transition. Again and again, victim groups and other civil society organizations have carried the burden of keeping the issue on the agenda, sometimes at great risk. Even before the transition in Argentina, the Madres and the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo fulfilled this advocacy role, a paradigm for other groups. In less visible ways, in virtually all contexts in which mass violations of human rights have taken place, thousands of individual victims or their family members 23 24 25 26 27 See, e.g., concluding observations on the Central African Republic (CEDAW/C/CAF/CO/1-5) and Cyprus (CEDAW/C/CYP/CO/6-7). In India (CEDAW/C/IND/CO/SP.1). In the Syrian Arab Republic (CEDAW/C/SYR/CO/2). In Afghanistan (CEDAW/C/AFG/CO/1-2). See www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-argentina. 9