A/HRC/8/3
page 17
that disproportionate use of lethal force”.65 The Department did not issue indictments. As I noted
in the communication, this “outcome - and particularly the way in which the interplay of the
commission inquiry and Police Investigations Department investigation have produced it - would
appear to fall short of the international standards”.66
(j)
The inquiry’s final report fails to adequately justify its conclusions
47. Some commissions appear on their face to be appropriately established, but a close review
of the substance of the final report reveals a failure to conduct a meaningful inquiry.67 Its
conclusions may be untenable in the face of the available evidence. The commission may simply
accept the Government version of events without explanation or analysis. It may reach
conclusions without any apparent investigation having taken place to support them.
48. During my visit to Nigeria, for example, I reviewed a commission report into a “sectarian
crisis” in Kano state in 2004. Credible and detailed civil society reports put the number killed at
between 200 and 250; the commission, however, without providing any evidence whatsoever
that it had conducted independent investigations into the number killed, recommended that the
police figure of 84 be taken as the “official position”.68 The commission, again without having
undertaken any adequate investigation, also accepted the Government’s assessment of the overall
damage caused by the crisis. In recommending the compensation that should be paid, the
commission arrived at figures without any explanation or argument.69
(k)
Lack of information about the conduct of or response to the commission
49. One significant problem encountered in the work of the Special Rapporteur in seeking to
address widespread impunity for extrajudicial executions is a dearth of information on the
conduct of established commissions of inquiry and of the Government response to the final
commission report.70 Rarely is the progress of most national commissions carefully monitored by
the international community. Commissions often take many months or years to produce their
reports, and it can take as long again before the Government issues an official response to the
inquiry’s conclusions. Long-term monitoring is thus necessary in order to determine whether a
particular commission was, at the end of the day, effective. But there is no centralized
monitoring of commissions of inquiry worldwide accessible to view the progress of a
commission or to judge its effectiveness.
65
E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.1, pp. 127-128.
66
Ibid.
67
E/CN.4/2003/3/Add.3, paras. 32 and 41; E/CN.4/2004/7/Add.2, paras. 43-44.
68
E/CN.4/2006/53/Add.4, para. 65.
69
Ibid., paras. 65-66.
70
E/CN.4/1996/4/Add.1, para. 41.
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