A/HRC/27/56 106. Inadequate or unjustified criteria for the distribution of prosecutorial resources can result in new or renewed ways of discrimination and of violating rights, which may even provoke a renewal of violence. 107. Among the main advantages of developing a prosecutorial prioritization strategy are: improved efficiency; addressing otherwise frequently defeated expectations of victims and the population; shielding prosecutorial decisions from undue influences; enhancing the sustainability of the effects of judicial processes; helping to address the situation of vulnerable groups; and strengthening victim and witness protection. 108. The design of a strategy must not constitute a straightjacket, but should be conceived in a dynamic manner as prosecutorial possibilities shift at different stages of a transitional process. When designing a prioritization strategy, the advantages, drawbacks and implications of the possible elements should be considered as detailed in the present report. Those elements include: the “easiest” cases, “high impact” cases, “symbolic/emblematic/paradigmatic” cases, “most serious violations” and “most responsible perpetrators”. 109. A sustainable prioritization strategy requires a prosecutorial focus on patterns of violations, helping to discover chains of command, links between armed actors and other groups, as well as financial and other support. The strategy’s objective is to undo the structures or networks that enabled the various actors jointly to make horrific violations happen. 110. Targeting the violation enabling structures requires a change in practice and investigative techniques. Several States have established specialized units or bodies. Cooperation between jurisdictions, while critically needed, is not often forthcoming. 111. The Special Rapporteur is seriously concerned about patterns of one-sided prosecutorial attention, which call into question the legitimacy of the entire transitional justice effort. This implies both the deliberate foregoing of investigations and the sequencing of prosecutions in a way that decreases the possibility of one party being investigated. 112. The independence and autonomy of prosecutors are crucial to prevent criminal justice being used as a means of power. Establishing effective means to guarantee the independence and autonomy of prosecutors is a State’s duty. 113. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the tendency of several (post-) conflict States to frame prosecutions in such a way as to make the State appear to be the ultimate and only victim of the majority of the violations, while violations of human rights and humanitarian law are ignored or demoted to secondary level. 114. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by the apparent collective will of the international community to take the rights of victims as seriously as the rights of suspects. Statutes of international and hybrid courts have reinforced the centrality of victims in criminal proceedings. 115. Victim participation implies recognition of victims as rights holders; manifests and strengthens the right to truth; acknowledges the crucial role victims have played in initiating procedures and in collecting, sharing and preserving evidence; empowers victims and catalyzes demands for justice – likely to contribute to guaranteeing nonrecurrence. 116. Victim participation in the design of prosecutorial strategies at international and hybrid courts has proven crucial in identifying the array of possible violations. The Special Rapporteur highlights the dearth of institutionalized mechanisms for 21