A/HRC/5/7 page 17 reparation; the right not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment; and the right to seek and to impart information. As indicated in many communications which States and non-governmental organizations have submitted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the right to the truth is a fundamental right which States must guarantee fully and effectively. 86. Because it is linked to other fundamental rights and to the fundamental obligations of States, particularly the obligation to combat impunity, the right to the truth is an inalienable and inderogable right. Amnesties and similar measures and restrictions on the right to seek information must not be used to limit, nullify or impair the right to the truth. 87. The right to the truth, as is clear from the communications received, is evolving steadily. In recent years, national laws and other measures have been adopted. In many countries, international and regional human rights organizations and courts and national courts have developed a significant body of jurisprudence on the right to the truth, its essence and scope, thereby helping to flesh out the meaning of the right. New international legal instruments, which deal with the question of the right to the truth, have been adopted in recent years. Many aspects and dimensions of the right to the truth require further analysis, however. 88. The right to the truth touches on many questions. For example, as many States and non-governmental organizations have acknowledged, the right to the truth is closely related to the question of historical memory and the duty of both the State and society to preserve that memory. The societal dimension of the right to the truth, which is linked to the question of historical memory, raises specific issues that would repay a closer study, including the question of records and of the historical memory. 89. With regard to the workings of criminal justice, many communications stress the vital role of criminal proceedings in upholding the right to the truth. The role of victims and their families in criminal proceedings, the relevant international standards and national and international practices should be analysed in detail. 90. With regard to institutional means and mechanisms for guaranteeing, safeguarding and implementing the right to the truth, the national experiences of which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been apprised point to a diverse range of modalities. International criminal courts, truth commissions, investigation commissions, national criminal courts, national human rights institutions and other bodies and administrative procedures, means of recourse such as habeas corpus and habeas data and historical records can be important means of guaranteeing the right to truth. When it comes to guaranteeing and implementing the right to truth, however, experiences differ and results are uneven. These institutional means and mechanisms should be analysed more fully. 91. The above-mentioned aspects - records, the historical memory, the role of victims and their families in criminal proceedings and institutional means and mechanisms - should be studied and analysed in greater detail in order not only to draw lessons from them but also to elaborate recommendations and standards to better protect and guarantee the right to the truth.