A/HRC/27/21 13. As women and children make up the vast majority of persons displaced by conflict, efforts should also be made to consult in camps for internally displaced persons and refugees. Some initiatives in this area include the consultation of Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea in 1999, of Timorese refugees in Indonesia in 2000,13 and of internally displaced persons in Darfur in 2010 in relation to the Doha peace process. However, more efforts are needed. 14. Women’s groups and other local networks can play an invaluable role in reaching and engaging victims. However, care must be taken in ensuring that civil society intermediaries truly represent victims’ views, not their own agenda or that of a narrow subgroup of victims,14 for example urban or well-educated women only. While consultations with children should make use of schools, clubs, child protection agencies and other networks for outreach and engagement, experience suggests that for children to speak frankly, they should be consulted in the absence of adult intermediaries. IV. Truth-seeking processes A. Truth commissions 15. Truth commissions play an important role in addressing not only sexual violence, but also other forms of gender violence. Truth commissions are often well placed to reflect the systematic nature of sexual violence, particularly where it is used as a method of warfare. In situations where there is social stigma attached to sexual violence, incorporating a gender perspective into the work of a truth commission will also help to break down that stigma and change societal attitudes regarding sexual violence. There may not be sufficient understanding of the long-term impact of such violence, including as suffered by girls and boys. Sensitizing the population to the work of truth commissions through an outreach programme is an important element in that regard. 16. A specific gender perspective, including attention to gender-based and sexual violence, was absent from the work of some early truth commissions.15 Some of the more recent commissions have successfully integrated closer attention to gender-based and sexual violence in their work and supported the participation of women and girls.16 That included creating a specialized gender unit within a commission; incorporating the issue of gender-based and sexual violence into their operational structure and rules of procedure, even where that was not specified in the formal mandate of the commission; ensuring the representation of women as commissioners, at expert levels and as staff; supporting a communication and outreach process that emphasizes that gender-based and sexual violence is within the ambit of the commission and should be reported; and conducting analysis and elaborating specific findings and recommendations regarding sexual violence or gender-based discrimination in their final reports.17 13 14 15 16 17 6 National Consultations, p. 21. Ibid., p. 22. A/HRC/24/42, para. 36. See also Vasuki Nesiah and others for the International Center for Transitional Justice, Truth Commissions and Gender: Principles, Policies and Procedures (2006). See Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2004), chap. 2; Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia, vol. 2, Consolidated Final Report; and Chega! The Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in TimorLeste (CAVR), part 7, chaps. 7.7 and 7.8, and part 11. Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions, 2nd ed. (2011), p. 85.