Mandates
The overall objectives of a truth commission are usually stated in the preamble to a mandate and its initial considerations, which should provide guidance to members of the commission. Although mandates may address different objectives, these three aims inform the work of most commissions:
- Establishment and explanation of facts: The core function of a truth commission is to ascertain facts. Mandates differ in the scope of those facts, their legal classification, or the depth of the explanation required.
- Protection, recognition, and restoration of the rights of victims: This function distinguishes truth commissions from courts of law and advisory panels, placing the rights of victims and their experiences at the center of the commission’s work.
- Positive social and political change: Some mandates have entrusted commissions to suggest ways for government, civil society, and the public to contribute to reconciliation, reform, democracy, and prevention of recurrence.
Functions
Some of the functions stated in the mandates of commissions include:
- Preparing a report that establishes an accurate and impartial historical record of human rights violations:
- Gathering information: The mandate should authorise the commission to investigative human rights violations, political strategies, local histories, specific cases, and the consequences of abuse.
- Protecting the integrity and well-being of victims: It is important for a truth commission to gather information from victims and witnesses in a manner that does not pose any danger to their personal safety or their integrity.
- Conducting educational outreach activities: The commission should be authorised to address the public through communication, the media, and educational/outreach activities. Public hearings have proven to be a powerful outreach activity, providing victims with the opportunity to speak in their own voices and a sense of personal vindication, while also educating the public
- Offering policy proposals to ensure violations are not repeated: Truth commissions can help prevent the repetition of violations through recommendations that address the causes of conflict and promote respect for the rule of law.
- Supporting the work of the justice system: A truth commission can play a significant role in tackling impunity, while cooperating with the work of the courts of law through meticulous research and documentation of abuses and violations, and the locations where these took place (for example, some commissions have uncovered grave sites through their investigations)
- Promoting communal or national reconciliation: Many truth commissions are tasked with organizing activities to promote reconciliation, tolerance and healing among individuals, communities, and parties to a conflict.
Competence
Every legal mandate that sets up a truth commission establishes:
- The types of violations to be investigated. The legal framework should be strong, but flexible in defining the types of violations and issues under examination in terms that are not exhaustive.
- The time period to be examined. The time periods and length of time under investigation varies greatly among commissions. Some have examined violations covering periods of up to 40 years, while others have focused on weeks.
- The parties to be examined. Early commissions, like the Argentinean Commission on the Disappeared, focused only on abuses committed by government agents. However subsequent commissions have demonstrated the value of investigating all violations that have caused suffering to a society, whether the actions of state or nonstate agents, including violent anti- government actors and paramilitaries.
- The territory where violations took place. All commissions to date have focused their inquiry on the territory of the country or state that established the inquiry. However, many conflicts or abuses have crossed over borders or involved people from other countries.