A/HRC/45/45 shed light on certain events, making it possible to identify mass graves following the massacres in Srebrenica and, more recently, to uncover serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Myanmar, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Sudan. 47. However, these documentation processes are complex and dangerous. In different parts of the world, human rights defenders, journalists and other persons who document violations have been attacked and killed. In some cases, there have even been “preventive” killings of such persons by assailants seeking to prevent the documentation of future crimes. 48. Efforts to ensure prevention and non-recurrence through education are even more difficult while conflicts are still ongoing, but this work is of great importance once the weapons have been laid down. C. Managing victims’ expectations 49. It is now possible to establish and document serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law more immediately and effectively than ever before. However, this essential work may paradoxically aggravate the victims’ feelings of abandonment and impotence by highlighting the international community’s ineffectiveness in putting an end to such violations. During a conflict, transitional justice mechanisms must be sure-footed in their dealings with victims. 50. In times of conflict, transitional justice mechanisms must deal as best they can with the fact that they are unable, at least temporarily, to meet the unsatisfied expectations of the victims and communities on whose behalf they were created. An example of innovation in this regard is the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011, 27 which has taken a number of measures to respond adequately to victims’ needs and has also cooperated with national jurisdictions prosecuting the perpetrators of international crimes, 28 established procedures for regularly informing victims’ representatives about investigations, conducted studies on expectations and how best to meet them, and ensured that victims who testify have given their prior consent and agreement and that precautions are taken to guarantee their safety. VI. Memory work in situations of transition A. The challenge of ownership 51. When peace and/or democracy are finally restored, the educational goal of memorialization is not always achieved through transitional justice mechanisms. Although the act of prosecuting the perpetrators has enormous value for memory processes, the judgments handed down by an international or hybrid criminal court are not in themselves sufficient to change perceptions within societies. Decisions often run to hundreds of pages and are written in legal language that is not easily accessible to the general public. It has sometimes taken years to have such judgments translated into national languages. 52. For example, during its 25 years of existence (1993–2017), the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia succeeded in apprehending and prosecuting many individuals, including heads of State, ministers, generals and other prominent political and military leaders of various parties. The case law of this Tribunal and of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has played an absolutely vital role in raising awareness of gender-based violence29 and of other aberrant acts. 27 28 29 GE.20-09155 A/73/741. As of January 2020, about a dozen States had submitted 41 requests to the Mechanism. See International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Mucić et al., Kunarac et al., Šainović et al. and Đorđević. 9