#righttothetruthday

International human rights law provides a clear and universal framework relating to detention, enshrined by the following standards:

The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (“Nelson Mandela Rules”)

Since their adoption by the Economic and Social Council in 1957, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR) have served as the universally acknowledged minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners. Despite their legally non-binding nature, the rules have been important worldwide as a source for relevant national legislation as well as of practical guidance for prison management.

Although not legally binding, the SMRs provide guidelines for international and domestic law for citizens held in prisons and other forms of custody. The basic principle described in the standard is that "There shall be no discrimination on grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".

Face to the increasing pressure and mistreatment of political prisoners in the facility.

Every person who suffers harm because of an enforced disappearance has the right to know the truth. States must guarantee this right, recalls the UN Committee on #EnforcedDisappearances on the

Transitional justice offers valuable tools to properly address human rights violations committed during the colonial period. The colonial transfer of wealth and racist oppression have created a legacy of social, economic and cultural exclusion whose effects have been felt for generations. Leaving this historical debt unpaid has generated more pain and challenges the conscience of an international system that should be based on respect for and the guarantee of human rights. Transgenerational damage can no longer be ignored.

Unlike the traditional transitional justice processes that focus on recent human rights violations, addressing rights violations that occurred in colonial times poses challenges due to the length of time that has passed.

In general, processes of historical truth-seeking and the legal recognition of the harm done in the past and its repercussions in the present are indispensable to the establishment of restorative justice as a basis for a peaceful and sustainable future.

Transitional justice approaches to addressing the colonial past cannot and should not render invisible the victims and communities, who should occupy a central and privileged role.

It is essential to identify the obligations which are incumbent on each State and those which must be carried out jointly. To this end, all the tools and mechanisms that are put into practice must have a human rights focus, assigning due importance to the components of truth, land restitution, measures of non-recurrence and memorialization processes.

Reparations should not and cannot be dressed up as humanitarian aid, assistance or development cooperation, evading the assumption of due responsibilities.

The unacceptable idea of racial or national superiority continues to be explicit in some political discourse and implicit in many societies, including within the international community. It is essential to bring about cultural change based on the recognition of and a holistic approach to the violations of rights committed during the colonial past; this will furnish a vital tool for preventing and properly addressing contemporary discrimination and racism.

The responsibilities and expectations relating to efforts to address the legacy of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in colonial settings through measures of truth, justice, reparation, memorialization and guarantees of non-recurrence differ among those States that were colonizing Powers, those that were colonies and are now independent nations, and those where the colonization of indigenous peoples and the oppression of people of African descent persist in different forms. As the Special Rapporteur details below, however, in all cases the authorities must take appropriate measures tailored to their specific contexts and responsibilities to respond promptly and effectively to the long-standing grievances of victims and affected communities.

The Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations on the adoption of transitional justice mechanisms designed to address the legacy of gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in colonial contexts.

The design, implementation and evaluation of transitional justice mechanisms adopted in these contexts must be carried out with the effective participation of the victims and affected communities and in permanent consultation with them. Truth.

The former colonizing Powers, States in which the colonization of indigenous peoples and the oppression of people of African descent persist in various forms, and former colonies that have gained independence must establish mechanisms for investigation and truth-seeking within their areas of competence and jurisdiction in order to shed light on colonial violence and on the oppression, racism, discrimination and exclusion that affect those peoples today

These processes should be accompanied by the institutional and legal reforms necessary to ensure unrestricted access to the official archives relating to the periods under study which are held in the three types of States mentioned above. Other institutions that may have documentation, such as religious bodies, should also make their archives available to the authorities or persons concerned.

Steps should be taken to ensure that, in addition to members of truth commission mechanisms, victims and affected communities, and society at large, have access to the archives.

The archives must be properly processed, classified and preserved according to the ethical standards established in this area, in order to ensure the safeguarding of the documentation for future generations. Reparation.

States that were colonizing Powers and States where the colonization of indigenous peoples and the oppression of people of African descent persists in various forms should consider mechanisms to redress the harm caused to victims and affected communities. Such reparations, whether individual or collective, should aim to be comprehensive and include the following: (a) Satisfaction, including restoration of the victims’ dignity, recognition of the harm caused and the responsibilities involved, the dissemination of information in this regard, and the issuance of public apologies that meet the requirements set out in the Special Rapporteur’s previous report to the General Assembly (A/74/147); (b) Restitution of lands and natural resources, through mechanisms for the return of usurped lands, and/or the granting of other lands agreed upon with the affected persons and communities, including through land reform mechanisms that make it possible to overcome inequality in access to lands and natural resources; and the restitution of cultural heritage and archaeological remains; (c) Compensation, including sums of financial compensation that are considered adequate and commensurate with the harm suffered by the victims, and to which they have agreed; (d) Physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and access to essential rights, infrastructure and services that ensure a dignified life, including housing, health, education and access to water and sanitation.

Development aid projects that do not acknowledge accountability and do not aim to improve the specific conditions in which victims find themselves are not adequate substitutes for reparation programmes.

The independent States must, for their part, guarantee the urgent needs of the victims and affected populations under their jurisdiction, as guarantors of economic and social rights in their country, as detailed in paragraphs (b) and (d). Memorialization.

All three types of States identified should adopt memorialization measures that comprehensively address the patterns, the causes and the consequences of rights violations committed during colonization and their impact today, in order to preserve the memory of these events and their dissemination to present and future generations. Guarantees of non-recurrence.

States in which the colonization of indigenous peoples and the oppression of people of African descent persist in various forms must identify and reform State standards, structures and processes that perpetuate the oppression, the violence, the exclusion and the racism that affect those peoples. They must also identify and reform the concomitant material, cultural and ideological conditions, including the revision of curricula.

Former colonizing Powers and the now-independent States must ensure that the legal and institutional frameworks and the material, ideological and cultural conditions in their countries do not reproduce stereotypes or discriminatory practices from the colonial period, or any other persistent form of racism or exclusion. Accountability 113. Former colonizing and settler States must ensure access to an effective remedy for victims of human rights violations related to colonialism and its continuing consequences, including racial oppression and violence, in their national courts so that legal complaints and claims for reparations for the harm suffered can be processed without legal or procedural obstacles. 114. In cases where persons suspected of having committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are still alive, former colonizing States, settler States and States that have gained independence should ensure accountability or, where appropriate, facilitate the extradition of the aforementioned persons under their jurisdiction. 115. Victims and witnesses who testify in such judicial proceedings should be provided with protection mechanisms and legal and psychosocial assistance adapted to the needs and characteristics of the rights violation that they suffered. 116. The international community must support national efforts to address the legacy of rights violations committed in colonial contexts, through mechanisms of truth, justice, reparation and memory and guarantees of non-recurrence

Enhancing the effectiveness of transitional justice prosecutions.

Transitional justice has contributed to the realization of the right to justice through the articulation of prosecutorial strategies, something that prosecutors confronting common crimes in ordinary jurisdictions never develop, as they typically stand under the obligation to consider cases as they come. By contrast, in the typical transitional situation the number and types of violations vastly outstrip the State’s capacity to take in all cases that might be presented at any one time and even over time. A strategy is then necessary in order to rationalize the deployment of scarce resources and to maximize the impact of those efforts.