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facts surrounding those violations so that the truth may be ascertained and to prevent the
disappearance of evidence” (principle 5). In their responses to the note verbale, States give both
recent and older examples of commissions of inquiry they have established.
46. Having admitted that people who had disappeared because of their involvement or alleged
involvement in political activities in a period between September 1961 and October 1988 had
died, Brazil passed a law (No. 10.875/2004 of 24 March 2004) setting up an ad hoc commission
to identify the disappeared persons whose names did not appear in the annex to the law, find
their bodies and express an opinion on applications for compensation.
47. A decree (No. 4.850/2003 of October 2003) established an inter-ministerial committee for
the purpose of obtaining information leading to the location, identification, transport and burial
of the remains of people who had taken part in the guerrilla movement in Araguaia.
Administrative steps were also taken, including the establishment of a database of biological
samples and genetic profiles for use in identifying the human remains of victims of the military
regime.
48. Similarly, the Philippines mentions a commission of inquiry into involuntary
disappearances, which was responsible for scientific elucidation of the circumstances of each
disappearance and for the safe keeping of evidence relating to the identities of the individuals
involved and the causes of death.
49. Argentina’s experience led, in connection with the link between the right to the truth
and the right to an identity, to the creation of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, which
has been playing a very important role in seeking out and identifying disappeared persons,
locating people killed in extrajudicial executions, helping the courts bring the facts to light and
helping, with victims’ families, to establish the truth. Argentina has established a National
Commission on the Right to an Identity (Act No. 25.457 of 1992) and a National Genetic Data
Bank (Act No. 23.511 of 1987) in which genetic maps of all the families which have lost
children in forced disappearances are archived and indexed.
50. From the peace agreement of 10 April 1998 in Ireland (the “Good Friday Agreement”)
stemmed moves to acknowledge and tackle the suffering caused to victims of the conflict. A
Victims’ Commissioner was appointed to identify what further steps to take to acknowledge and
take account of the suffering of those concerned. Later, commissions of inquiry were set up to
shed light on the bombings in Dublin and Monaghan and, more generally, on the violence which
began in the 1970s.
51. Separately, an independent commission was set up to locate the remains of victims of
paramilitary violence.
C. Court proceedings
52. Besides setting up truth commissions and non-judicial commissions of inquiry, some States
report proceedings brought before national courts against those responsible for war crimes
against civilian groups, explaining, where cases might also come under the jurisdiction of an
international tribunal, what cooperative mechanisms had been established with the tribunal
concerned.
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