A/HRC/42/45
I. Introduction
1.
The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council by the Special
Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence,
pursuant to Council resolution 36/7. In the report, the Special Rapporteur lists key activities
undertaken from August 2018 to June 2019 and provides an analysis of practical
experiences of domestic reparation programmes.
2.
In resolution 36/7, the Special Rapporteur was requested to gather information on
national practices and experiences and to study trends, developments and challenges, to
promote good practices and lessons learned, and to integrate a victim-centred approach
throughout the mandate.1 The report responds to these requirements.
3.
Bearing in mind the work on the right to reparation carried out previously under this
mandate, which was focused mostly on key normative issues surrounding the right,2 and
mindful that the great majority of victims around the world continue not to receive any
form of reparation, the Special Rapporteur devotes the present report to assessing lessons
learned as well as a selection of challenges in implementing domestic reparation
programmes.
4.
The Special Rapporteur held an online open consultation and an expert meeting to
inform the present report.
5.
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur does not include two important forms
of reparation, namely forms of satisfaction including apologies, and land and property
restitution. He will address these issues in his future work. A report on the adoption of
apologies for gross human rights violations and serious violations of international
humanitarian law will be presented to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session,
in October 2019.
II. Activities undertaken by the Special Rapporteur
6.
Between 1 August 2018 and 1 July 2019, the Special Rapporteur sent visit requests
to Colombia, El Salvador, the Gambia and Tunisia, and renewed his request to Nepal.
Requests to visit Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Guatemala, Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Nepal and Rwanda were still
pending at the time that the present report was being prepared.
7.
On 10 September 2018, he participated in an expert consultation on standards and
public policies for an effective investigation of enforced disappearances, convened by the
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
8.
On 13 September, he participated in the high-level panel discussion commemorating
the seventieth anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide.
9.
On 13 and 14 September, he participated in the Human Rights Council at its thirtyninth session, presenting his first thematic report on his approach to the mandate and
preliminary areas of interest.
10.
On 18 September, he participated in a public dialogue in the Congress of Deputies of
Spain on the application of international human rights law in the Spanish legal system,
specifically in relation to the obligations to investigate and prosecute international crimes
committed during the Franco regime. He also met with Members of the Congress of
Deputies.
1
2
See para. 4.
See A/69/518.
3
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