NAME OF MECHANISM

(Alternative) Commission of Truth (Comisión de Verdad)

PERIOD OF OPERATION

28 June 2010 – present. Launched on the one-year anniversary of the coup, the commission is expected to complete its work in June 2011.

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: The Commission of Truth’s objective is to investigate and reveal the human rights violations committed during the coup of 2009, to demand justice for those affected by the coup and to recommend measures to prevent recurrence. The commission is mandated to investigate human rights violations that occurred during the coup in June 2009, as well as in the state’s persecution of human rights activists and opposition leaders, identifying those responsible for the violations. The commission is also responsible for collecting testimonies from victims and evidence of the repression that occurred in the 1980s, in addition to assessing the impact of the structures of impunity and repression still operating in the country.

The commission is further mandated to identify the institutional, economic and historical causes of the coup, as well as to analyse and identify foreign interests that contributed to it. The commission is expected to recommend rehabilitation and reparations mechanisms for victims. In addition, the commission is to establish a permanent international body to monitor and provide the necessary advice to ensure Honduras’ compliance with its recommendations.

Staff: The nine commissioners are Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Salvadoran Supreme Court Justice Mirna Antonieta Perla, founder of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Nora Morales de Cortiñas, Ecuador Truth Commission member and human rights defender Sister Elsie Monge, Laureate of Honduras’ National Prize for Literature Helen Umaña, Honduran human rights defender Father Fausto Milla Nuñez, Nathanson Centre on Transnational Rights Director Craig Scott, Spanish magistrate and head of Judges for Democracy Luis Carlos Nieto and former UN Human Rights Committee President Francisco José Aguilar Urbina.

Budget: The commission is funded by the international community.

RESOURCES

Commission of Truth’s official website (in Spanish)

RESULTS

Using a database of 2,000 cases documented by Human Rights Platform of Honduras as its starting point, the Commission of Truth (also known as the True Commission) has been visiting different regions of the country in its effort to document human rights violations that occurred both before and since the coup.

In March 2011, under the United States Freedom of Information Act, the Commission of Truth, in cooperation with the Center for Constitutional Rights, announced a round of requests for documents and records from United States agencies relating to the 2009 Honduran coup. Initial requests have gone unanswered or been denied or heavily redacted [Center for Constitutional Rights | 2011].

BACKGROUND

The Human Rights Platform of Honduras, an umbrella association of six human rights organisations, launched the Commission of Truth with the support of opposition political parties [Resistencia | 2010]. According to its supporters, this alternative commission was established as a response to the questionable integrity of the official Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose commissioners were appointed without consultation with the public or civil society, as well as to the government’s reluctance to investigate or prosecute those responsible for the 2009 coup and for the many killings, rapes, beatings and illegal detentions that occurred in its aftermath [Center for Constitutional Rights | 2010].

SOURCES

[Center for Constitutional Rights | 2010]
[Center for Constitutional Rights | 2011]
[Institute for Policy Studies | 2010]
[Resistencia | 2010]