Right to the Truth

A/HRC/RES/21/7View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2012.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2008–2014

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/68/165

2014A/RES/68/165Right to the truthLatestCompare with previous version
2012A/HRC/RES/21/7Right to the truthCompare with previous version
2009A/HRC/RES/12/12Right to the truthCompare with previous version
2008A/HRC/RES/9/11Right to the truth

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 topics

Archives Criminal Investigation Disappearance of Persons Human Rights Violations International Organizations Right to the Truth Technical Cooperation Truth Commissions

What does this mandate say?

13 operative paragraphs

Recognizes the importance of respecting and ensuring the right to the truth so as to contribute to ending impunity and to promote and protect human rights;

Welcomes the establishment in several States of specific judicial mechanisms and other non-judicial mechanisms, such as truth and reconciliation commissions, that complement the justice system, to investigate violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law, and appreciates the elaboration and publication of the reports and decisions of these bodies;

Encourages the States concerned to disseminate, implement and monitor implementation of the recommendations of such non-judicial mechanisms as truth and reconciliation commissions, and to provide information regarding compliance with the decisions of judicial mechanisms;

Encourages other States to consider establishing specific judicial mechanisms and, where appropriate, truth and reconciliation commissions to complement the justice system, in order to investigate and address gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law;

Encourages States and international organizations to provide requesting States with necessary and appropriate assistance regarding the right to the truth by means of, among other actions, technical cooperation and the exchange of information concerning administrative, legislative and judicial and non-judicial measures, as well as experiences and best practices that have as a purpose the protection, promotion and implementation of this right, including practices regarding the protection of witnesses and the preservation and management of archives;

Encourages States to design programmes and other measures to protect witnesses and individuals who cooperate with judicial bodies and mechanisms of a quasi-judicial or non-judicial nature, such as human rights commissions and truth commissions;

Calls upon States to work in cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence in accordance with his mandate, including by extending invitations to the Special Rapporteur;

Welcomes the entry into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and encourages all States that have not yet signed, ratified or acceded to the Convention to consider doing so;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the right to the truth and, in accordance with its conclusions, calls upon all States to consider developing comprehensive witness protection programmes covering all types of crimes, including gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law;

Also takes note with appreciation of the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on the seminar on experience of archives as a means to guarantee the right to the truth, which outlined the importance of archives to the ability of victims to realize their right to the truth, to judicial accountability and non-judicial truth-seeking processes, and for reparations, and, in accordance with its concluding observations, encourages States that have not yet done so to establish a national archival policy that ensures that all archives pertaining to human rights are preserved and protected, and to enact legislation that declares that the nation’s documentary heritage is to be retained and preserved, and creates the framework for managing State records from their creation to destruction or preservation;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to invite, from within existing resources, Member States, United Nations organs, intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations to provide information on good practices in the establishment, preservation and provision of access to national archives on human rights, and to make the information received publically available in an online database;

Invites special procedures and other mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, in the framework of their mandates, to take into account, as appropriate, the issue of the right to the truth;

Decides to consider this matter at its twenty-seventh session under the same agenda item or at the corresponding session in conformity with its annual programme of work.

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