Press Releases:

June 30, 2004

Report: "Truth Commissions and NGOs: The Essential Relationship"

CONTACT
Suzana Grego
Director of Communications
TEL +1 917 438 9331
E-MAIL sgrego@ictj.org

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to alert you to a report, "Truth Commissions and NGOs: The Essential Relationship — The 'Frati Guidelines' for NGOs Engaging With Truth Commissions," aimed at those involved in public discussions around the establishment of a truth commission and produced by the ICTJ in collaboration with the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).

This report is the result of ongoing activities of the ICTJ working group on Managing Truth Commissions, including discussions at a meeting in Bellagio, Italy, among NGO actors who have worked directly with truth commissions and other experts, such as truth commission officials and scholars. The "Frati Guidelines" are meant to be a nonexhaustive list of considerations, provocative questions, and guiding principles; they do not assume that truth commissions are always appropriate, or that a single truth commission model exists. On the contrary, they encourage NGOs to initiate a society-wide dialogue about the need for a truth commission and to think creatively about what form that commission should take, given the particular historical and cultural context in which it will operate. At the same time, the paper seeks to extract useful comparative lessons from the over two dozen truth commissions that have been created in countries as diverse as Chile, Ghana, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Timor-Leste.

The "Frati Guidelines" are also available in Arabic and French, and will soon be available in Spanish.

Please forward this email to anyone you think might like to see it. For more information, please contact me at 917.438.9331.

Best regards,
Suzana Grego