A/HRC/45/45 Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concluded, in the report on its mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, that the inability of minorities in different parts of the country to build memorials has caused much controversy and unhappiness in the country. 24 41. Memory work can also lead to abuse or even to the so-called “tyranny of memory”25 when the message conveyed has the aim of confining people to their status as victims in the name of past violence in order to justify and incite new acts of violence. In societies in conflict, irresponsible political leaders often construct narratives out of past defeats, in some cases inflicted many centuries ago, in order to stir up the emotions of their fellow citizens and awaken a desire for revenge based on the memory of these humiliations. Shedding light on past events, acknowledging responsibility and bringing the perpetrators to justice are the best antidotes to the manipulation of the past and the glorification of violence. Such measures also serve as the basis for genuine and lasting peace with no impunity. V. Memorialization in times of conflict A. Temporality 42. Over the past 30 years, dozens of truth commissions and commissions for investigating and establishing the facts of mass violations of human rights and international humanitarian law have been established and numerous criminal tribunals have been set up to try war crimes and other international crimes. These instruments are of recognized educational importance and exemplary value in relation to crimes that humanity “can neither punish nor forgive”26 because of their magnitude, although justice can, and must, be done in respect of them. The role that these bodies play in preventing the recurrence of such crimes must also be highlighted. 43. The issue of memory is one of the main reasons for the existence of these transitional justice mechanisms. This dimension of memory forms part of a medium- and long-term process, since, in the wake of mass violence, the task of democratically rebuilding a community can take decades or even generations. B. Limits of transitional justice 44. Notwithstanding the foregoing, experience shows that immediate action is hardly ever taken to approach crimes through the prism of education and to identify them as examples of conduct to be repudiated. Many obstacles prevent this from happening: for example, truth commissions and special criminal courts are sometimes set up while the conflict is ongoing, international crimes continue to be committed, and warring groups continue to disseminate their warmongering propaganda. In such conditions, memorialization is extremely difficult. 45. In recent years, in places such as the Central African Republic, Mali and the Syrian Arab Republic, a number of criminal and non-criminal transitional justice mechanisms have been established in very complex circumstances. During ongoing conflicts, States are unable to exercise their authority throughout their territories and, in many cases, are themselves responsible for the commission of serious violations of human rights and/or international humanitarian law. 46. Investigation and documentation processes that take place during conflicts are very valuable because they involve the collection of evidence and testimonies that will subsequently prove to be highly important. New technologies, in particular satellites, have 24 25 26 8 A/HRC/16/48/Add.1, para. 48. Todorov, Tzvetan, Les abus de la mémoire, Paris, Arléa, 1995. Hannah Arendt–Karl Jaspers, Correspondence, 1926–1969, letter of 17 August 1946, quoted by Claudia Hilb, “Des crimes que l’on ne peut ni punir ni pardonner. Penser avec Arendt, dans le débat sur le passé récent en Argentine”, University of Paris-Diderot, available at http://lcsp.univ-parisdiderot.fr/Arendt/pdf/hilb.pdf. GE.20-09155