ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VOICES SUPPORT FOR PERUVIAN TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

15 August 2003




As Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prepares to issue its final report, acting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan said today support for the group is more necessary now than at any other time since its establishment two years ago.

The commission, created to provide an official record of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in Peru between May 1980 and November 2000, and to recommend measures to strengthen human rights and democracy, is set to release its findings on 28 August. The TRC has held numerous public hearings, collected over 17,000 testimonies, and developed a consolidated register on "disappeared" persons. It has also documented grave human rights violations committed by security forces, including disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture.

Mr. Ramcharan hailed the work of the TRC, which he said would offer Peruvians the first comprehensive and objective account of the terrible violence that gripped the country for nearly two decades.

Mr. Ramcharan recalled that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had played an important role in providing technical assistance and financial support to allow the TRC to carry out a reliable reconstruction of the facts that led to human rights violations during the past 20 years. OHCHR’s assistance has focused on investigation, systematization of information and promotion work.

But the acting High Commissioner also expressed concern over reports that the commission has recently been the target of attacks and pressure in the run up to the release of its findings, and he called for backing for the panel.

“We in the international human rights community must show, now more than ever, our support for the TRC, which I believe is an essential institution in helping Peru to heal and move forward towards a future of justice and respect for the human rights of all its people”, he said.





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