A/HRC/34/62 (c) The inclusion of representatives of victims and other marginalized groups, as well as women, in security personnel will not only diversify the respective force so as to better understand the security concerns of all groups, but also lend it more legitimacy and effectiveness. Such representation would also contribute to indirectly empowering the victim community and marginalized groups. Following the 1998 Belfast Agreement, the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland increased the representation of Roman Catholics, through affirmative action recruitment schemes, from 8 per cent during the “Troubles” to up to 31 per cent as at 2015.52 This effort, together with focused community involvement, has resulted in high rates of popular trust in the police; (d) In Argentina, where no formal vetting processes were established after the dictatorship, civil society organizations made use of legislation adopted to both increase parliamentary transparency and the level of participation of civil society to intervene in debates concerning promotions in the security sector; NGOs could make submissions concerning candidates with murky pasts. The system therefore created powerful incentives for members of the security forces to retire, thereby becoming an indirect and yet effective means of cleansing the security forces. 53 IV. Conditions of success 64. Whether victims can successfully participate in transitional justice processes depends on many conditions, including the accessibility of the forums, geographically, linguistically and otherwise, where participation is to take place. Conditions of participation cannot be too onerous in any respect, and in any case should be designed with the wellbeing and dignity of the victims and other stakeholders in mind. The Special Rapporteur cannot review all such conditions in the present report. He will briefly mention three because of their importance and because they have not received sufficient attention in the past. A. Structural and contextual conditions 1. Security as a basic (and general) precondition of successful participation 65. The likelihood of significant victim participation in transitional justice processes is — and should be — at least in part a function of security conditions. No victim participation measures can operate properly if participants are or feel coerced in any way. Indeed, the seriousness of a Government’s commitment to a transitional justice process can be measured at least in part by the seriousness of its efforts to guarantee the security of participants. Those who have already been victimized deserve special consideration. 66. Because the report to the General Assembly already touched upon the issue of security, the present report will be brief on this topic. With the exception of some judicial processes, transitional justice measures are not particularly well known for carrying out thorough and independent security assessments. This should change. Such assessments should include an evaluation of the risks to participating victims as well as to other stakeholders, including staff, as well as recommendations on how to mitigate some of the risks. Transparency concerning risks should govern communication with all stakeholders, including participating victims. Different means of enabling participation while minimizing 52 53 16 See A/HRC/34/62/Add.1. Valeria Barbuto, “Strengthening democracy: impugnación procedures in Argentina”, in Justice as Prevention: Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies, A. Mayer-Rieckh and P. de Greiff, eds. (Social Science Research Council, 2007), pp. 40-79.