A/HRC/5/7 page 5 affirmed that the right to the truth is both an individual right of the victims and their families and a social right, since all members of society should be informed about all facts related to such violations. 15. Article 7 of the Colombian Justice and Peace Act states: “Society, and in particular victims, have an inalienable, full and effective right to know the truth about violations committed by organized armed groups operating outside the law and about the fate and destiny of the victims of abduction and enforced disappearance. Judicial inquiries and proceedings to which the present Act applies must promote action to ascertain what has happened to the victims of such acts and must inform their families accordingly. The criminal proceedings which are initiated under the present Act shall not impede the possible application in the future of other non-judicial arrangements for the restoration of the truth.” 16. For its part, Argentina stresses that the right to the truth is an autonomous right, both individual and communal in nature, and that, alongside justice, memory and reparation, constitutes one of the four mainstays of action to combat impunity, in cases involving gross violations of human rights. The right to the truth is viewed as an indispensable element in any process of restoring democracy, since it plays an essential role in the historical reconstruction of the causes and consequences of human rights violations. This right also entails the right to full knowledge of gross human rights violations, of the circumstance and reasons for their perpetration and the identity of those responsible for them. 17. In its case, however, Switzerland argues that there is no human rights instrument which identifies the right to the truth as a specific and autonomous right and that only certain of the provisions of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions touch on the “right” to know. Accordingly, the only provision which is concerned explicitly with the right of victims to know the truth is that contained in article 24, paragraph 2, of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (see paragraph 12 above). At the same time, it is generally accepted that States have a certain number of obligations, dictated by human rights, that are connected with the issue of victims’ right to know the truth. 18. Neither, according to Switzerland, do the human rights treaties, taken in their entirety, make any provision for the right of peoples to know the truth, although they do recognize the inherent rights of victims of massive human rights violations, such as the right to know, the right to reparation and to justice, and the right to guarantee of non-recurrence. II. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RIGHT TO THE TRUTH AND OTHER RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE STATE 19. The contributions sent in highlight the close links between the right to the truth and other human rights, including the right to have access to justice, the right to an effective remedy and the right to objective information.3 3 Cuba, Mexico and Paraguay, among others.