YouSaid · the spoken record

Mendez

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13

first

2004-10-06

most recent

2004-10-06

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1

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un-security-council

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1. “The number of successful prosecutions and convictions, for example, is a definite consideration; yet institutions should also be evaluated by examining whether they have built the local capacity to deal with justice effectively in the present and in the future. Finally, we commend the report's recommendation that the United Nations review its own structures and resources in this field. The United Nations already has an extensive track record on these issues. It will need additional resources and better coordination to address the challenges this report so eloquently identifies.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

2. “At the ICTJ we are embarking upon a review of mechanisms and approaches to transitional justice to determine the degree to which they have been gender-sensitive in design and operation, and how similar exercises can be improved from that perspective. We endorse the report's call for the collection of documentation on best practices. In that regard, we would like to draw attention to the Moroccan Equity and Reconciliation Commission. Not only is it a highly promising process, but it also serves as a fascinating example for non-governmental organizations and Governments throughout the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere. For that reason, Governments' handbooks, databases and tools must exist in multiple languages. We also encourage the development of a standard set of benchmarks to evaluate different transitional justice initiatives.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

3. “Ceasefires and truces, however, should be encouraged at all times, and we may have to forgo immediate justice as long as we preserve the ability to address past wrongs in the future. These thorny questions are context-specific and cannot be resolved in an abstract debate. Yet, we believe it is important for future peace-making to end the easy resort to blackmail embodied in the promise of loose amnesties and other rewards for atrocities. We applaud the call in the Secretary-General's report for the universal application of principles of gender equality to all aspects of transitional justice and the rule of law.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

4. “Those of us who approach the problem from a human rights perspective must humbly recognize that the prospect of being prosecuted for war crimes is not likely to persuade combatants to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. For that reason, it is not so much that we object to peace agreements that are premised on impunity, but that we must insist that we can do better. A peace settlement that rejects impunity is a legal and moral imperative, but it must also address the grievances that gave rise to the conflict in the first place. That is why it is important to resist the blackmail of those who threaten to continue to fight and commit atrocities unless they are given immunity.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

5. “The United Nations has played a major role in supporting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, which submitted its final report to the President of Sierra Leone just yesterday. It has also been central to the operations of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. While the relationship between those institutions has not been without its difficulties, there is an increasing recognition that courts and commissions can complement each other's work. There is also a long-standing debate as to whether the requirements of transitional justice objectively - as well as subjectively - complicate peace processes by creating disincentives for parties to a conflict to renounce violence.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

6. “There is an increasing consensus among legal practitioners that truth and justice are not mutually exclusive alternatives. The temptation to establish a truth commission as a substitute for accountability should be resisted, however. The report's rejection of amnesty for international crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity is to be commended. We must also recognize that punishment without a full exploration of the facts and of historical and political responsibilities is equally inadvisable. For those reasons, we should embrace a policy that assigns proper priorities to truth-seeking and truth- telling, as well as to bringing perpetrators to justice.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

7. “When such tribunals are created under Chapter VII of the Charter, there is an explicit obligation on the part of all Member States to cooperate with their investigations, detentions and evidence-gathering. On the other hand, even when not acting under Chapter VII, the Security Council could explicitly mandate cooperation with mixed or hybrid courts and with the International Criminal Court, which would help to clarify the scope of the obligations of third-party States to cooperate with those institutions. More significantly, however, it would signal that the international community is not so much interested in imposing its will on war-torn states, but that it recognizes that the restoration of justice and the rule of law is a common enterprise in which all States must play a part.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

8. “The United Nations must invest from the start in outreach, public education and dissemination of the principles of transitional justice, as well as in the application of rule of law principles to the reform of State institutions. We recognize that the United Nations needs to increase its reservoir of expertise and capacities, and we hope that in so doing it draws on the wealth of knowledge that is present in civil society organizations, democratic Governments and academic institutions. The Security Council can play a large role in enhancing the legitimacy of this evolving doctrine. In some cases it will be necessary to create international judicial instruments to provide redress to the victims of mass atrocities.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

9. “We, the international community, should avoid adopting initiatives that seem to work in other contexts, without a broad consultation with national stakeholders. We support the report's emphasis on national assessments and consultation processes designed to increase local legitimacy and ownership, thereby assuring a lasting legacy of tolerance and democratic values. National ownership will reduce the risk that the work of the United Nations in this area will be perceived as a foreign imposition that runs roughshod over the richness and capabilities of local cultures. The inclusion of a commitment to transitional justice in peace agreements and United Nations mandates should not lead to premature decisions to apply untested models.”

   2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

10. “Finally, societies that are still torn by underlying conflicts of a social, political, or ideological character, should consider conscious efforts to achieve reconciliation. Reconciliation should be viewed as the ultimate object and condition of the legitimacy of efforts to achieve transitional justice. The problems that I have just described impose international law obligations on States undergoing transitions to remedy those violations. Although those obligations are universal, the policy mechanisms to put them in effect must allow for national customization and experimentation. Each society must find the set of tools and policy schemes suitable to the circumstances of its own transition.”

    2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

11. “Atrocities are often met by de jure or de facto impunity, but there can be no transition to a more humane, just, and democratic order unless impunity is broken through prosecution, trial, and eventual punishment. Little or no effort is made to recognize the inherent dignity of victims; the remedy for that is a policy of reparations that restores the respect that societies owe to their most vulnerable members. Additionally, there is often a risk of abuses being repeated, especially if perpetrators are allowed to remain in positions of power. Transitional societies must therefore reform their institutions and exclude perpetrators of human rights crimes from newly reconstituted institutions.”

    2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

12. “The further stage of the Security Council's participation in the debate highlights the transcendental nature of the doctrine adopted by the United Nations on this subject and embodied in the Secretary- General's report. The ICTJ was founded on the premise that societies in transition from dictatorship to democracy or from conflict to peace can find solutions to common problems by analysing experiences in different countries at different times. Official denial of mass crimes and an effort to condemn their victims to oblivion is often a feature of those transitions. To overcome them, some States have established truth- telling mechanisms to uncover the truth about and preserve the memory of past abuses.”

    2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source

13. “Mr. Mendez: I am honoured to represent the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) to address the important issues raised by the Secretary- General's report on the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies. Several of my colleagues participated last week in a workshop convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva to discuss the tools that the United Nations must develop to be better prepared to implement transitional justice approaches. We are pleased to see that new approaches are already moving from general policy to operational design.”

    2004-10-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5052 (2004) · source