A/HRC/42/40/Add.2 bringing the victims forward alive or voluntarily provide information contributing to clarification of the cases of enforced disappearances.6 34. Lastly, the Working Group was informed that no effective civil law provisions were available to victims of enforced disappearance to claim their rights. The Working Group recalls that, in accordance with the Declaration, in addition to criminal penalties, enforced disappearances render their perpetrators and the State or State authorities that organize, acquiesce in or tolerate such disappearances may be liable under civil law.7The Working Group was also informed of the forthcoming reform of the security sector. It received consistent information that that the SBU had been operating, especially at the height of the armed conflict in the East, without any real scrutiny and had enjoyed exceptionally broad powers, including those of law and order, investigation of crimes and the detention of individuals, including in places of detention that were not officially recognized. This should be changed with a view to revoking law-enforcement and related functions and ensuring civilian control over the security and intelligence services, including effective oversight by the legislative branch.8 35. The Working Group was also informed of an ongoing reform providing for the creation of the new State Bureau of Investigation. The State Bureau of Investigation took over the investigative jurisdiction from the Prosecutor’s Office, specifically in relation to crimes involving senior public officials, judges, officers of law enforcement or national anticorruption bodies, and certain crimes relating to military service. The SBU continues, however, to exercise investigative functions in relation to the crimes against national security, smuggling, terrorism, crimes relating to the protection of State secrets and crimes “against peace, security of mankind and the international legal order” (art. 216 (2) of the Criminal Code of Procedure ). The Working Group is concerned that the SBU retains investigative powers, including possibly for cases of enforced disappearance or other international crimes. It is also concerned that cases of enforced disappearance may be investigated by different investigative bodies, depending on who the perpetrator of the enforced disappearance is. 36. The State is under an obligation in international law to ensure that the institution in charge of investigating enforced disappearances has the necessary powers, resources and requisite knowledge to conduct investigations effectively. In addition, it is of outmost importance that investigative officials are familiar with the phenomenon and legal concept of enforced disappearances, including their legal and factual complexity, latent character, specificity of evidence and methods of its collection, and definition and roles of victims in pretrial investigations. Exchanges with legal professionals – judges, prosecutors and investigators – during the visit revealed an obvious need for this kind of legal training. 2. Truth 37. The Working Group, in its general comment on the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearance, stated that this right means the right to know about the progress and results of an investigation, the fate or whereabouts of disappeared persons, and the circumstances of the disappearance, and the identity of the perpetrator(s) (A/HRC/16/48, para. 39). 38. The experts observed that, while a number of those who were forcefully disappeared at the beginning of the conflict have been released within simultaneous releases under the Minsk agreements, or otherwise released or their whereabouts have been clarified, many others remain unaccounted for. 39. The experts were concerned that the list of those detained or captured during the conflict was seldom revealed to the concerned families, who were therefore left in the uncertainty and anguish as to the fate of their loved ones, also noting that there was currently an impasse in the process of simultaneous releases of detainees in the context of the Minsk agreements. The most recent simultaneous release was on 27 December 2017. The Working 6 7 8 See Declaration, art. 4.2 and Convention, art. 7.2. See Declaration, art. 5. See principle 36 (c) of the updated Set of Principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity. 9