(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a 5 December 2000 ARTICLE 19 press release: Report for release on 10 December 2000 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2000 THE RIGHT TO TRUTH To mark International Human Rights Day 2000 (1), ARTICLE 19 is publishing a major study of the importance of truth processes for reconciliation and development. […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a 5 December 2000 ARTICLE 19 press release:
Report for release on 10 December 2000
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2000
THE RIGHT TO TRUTH
To mark International Human Rights Day 2000 (1), ARTICLE 19 is publishing a major study of the importance of truth processes for reconciliation and development. Who Wants to Forget? (ARTICLE 19, December 2000) looks at the importance of truth and access to information about past human rights violations in terms of a country’s longterm economic and political development. The report uses Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia as case studies, but also draws on examples from other parts of the world.
Although the right to truth as a means to an end (compensation, restitution, justice, public acknowledgement of suffering) is generally recognised, most governments and foreign donors still do not recognise the obligation under international law to facilitate the uncovering of such information (2) or, indeed, its contribution to the promotion of democratic accountability and participation. As has been pointed out, when considering the question ‘should we remember?’ we should ask ‘who can forget?’ and also address who benefits when atrocities stay silent in the past. (3)
The report emphasizes that the right to information about past human rights violations remains fundamental. Governments and those in authority have an obligation to ensure that citizens are able to gain access to relevant information. The report also surveys the wide range of means whereby this can be achieved. This is aimed at civil society – as well as funding agencies who might support these activities – to stress the variety of means that they can employ to help the people exercise that right.
Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19 said:
“The victims and survivors of human rights violations have a fundamental right to information about what has happened to them. Too often, this crucial right is seen as a desirable extra rather than a fundamental part of a country’s rebuilding and development. The situation in Zimbabwe demonstrates that covering up the sins of the past perpetuates past problems.” (4)
“All approaches to uncovering the facts about past human rights violations discussed are important because they are mechanisms of accountability. As such, they are not a luxury but a precondition for those who are trying to put a history of abuse behind them and construct new societies based upon dignity and respect for human rights,” he added.
The report explores the efforts that have been made to realise this right in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia in the absence of an official commission of inquiry or truth commission. These case studies illustrate both the problems that have arisen out of the governments’ failure to initiate full investigations into past human rights violations, but also the partial successes that have resulted from other types of initiative, especially within civil society.
The report also seeks to elaborate the foundation basis in international law of the “right to truth” and summarizes the variety of means of investigating the past drawing on examples not only from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia, but also from South Africa (where the TRC has been accompanied by a whole range of other methods of looking at the past) and from other parts of the world, including Europe and Latin America.
The report outlines a range of possibilities for how to excavate the past, both literally and figuratively: commission of inquiry, media investigations, non-governmental investigations, criminal prosecutions, other types of court proceedings, reburials and the creation of memorials, academic study, literary work and museums.
The report is on ARTICLE 19’s website at www.article19.org/docimages/872.htm
ENDS
Notes
1. International Human Rights Day 2000 is Sunday 10 December 2000.
2. As part of the right to access information under ARTICLE 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. Robert Cabrera, “Should We Remember? Recovering Historical Memory in Guatemala”, p.27.
4. The commander of the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland (which was responsible for wholesale abuses against civilians) re-emerged as co-ordinator of the wave of “farm invasions” which were, in reality, an attempt to stop rural Zimbabweans from voting for the opposition.
