UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OHCHR - Press conference: A Global Briefing on Transitional Justice Around the World

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today.

Today's press briefing will be by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non recurrence, Mr Bernard Duham.

Mr Duham just delivered his report to the Human Rights Council, which focused on denialism, negationism, and revisionism of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in transitional justice context.

We're happy to have him briefing here today.

We'll begin with opening remarks by the Special Raptor, and then we will take questions.

Mr Duan, you're on the floor.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

So I'm very glad that we're able to meet this morning.

As indicated, I would like to do a brief statement regarding the report that I presented yesterday to the Council about denialism, revisionism and transitional justice.

But after the statement and during the question.

If you want to address also the other activities of the mandate, including the issues addressed yesterday during the interactive dialogue on that took place regarding the the High Commissioner's report on the impact of our conflicts on women and girls, that's a possibility as well.

And also about the recent trip I did to the Marshall Islands, if that is of interest for you.

And also, yes, so we can, we can deal with, with, with these those issues after I, I, I do the statement for your information, the statement I'm, I will read now will also be issued as a press release in the next minutes or so.

So thank you very much for joining us.

A dangerous wave of the nihilism is undermining efforts to secure truth, justice and non recurrence worldwide.

State politicians and other actors are denying past violations, glorifying perpetrators, stigmatising victims, and erasing collective memory through attacks on civil society and memorialization initiatives.

There can be no regression or reversal.

The denial of genocides, crimes against humanity and war crimes must be unequivocally rejected and countered.

In my last report to the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council, I reflected yesterday on a shift from evidence based accountability in political discourse, which is now replaced with emotionally charged narratives, identity, affirmation and polarisation that serve narrow political or ideological interests.

Denial of past events is often accompanied by silencing and descent of dissenting voices.

It limits understanding of past violence, undermine victims rights to justice and reparations, and it weakens prospects for non recurrence.

Regrettably, too often states response to denialism through memory or security laws, which have also been problematic, serving as a pretext for censorship and the imposition of a single state sanctioned narrative.

I'm recalling that international law requires the affirmative disclosure of accurate accounts of past violations to ensure maximum transparency and and states should disclose all this information to also ensure accountability.

Of course, information concerning international crimes must never be subject to secrecy, classification, or other access restrictions that do not comply with international human rights standards.

In fact, freedom of expression, cultural rights, education and access to knowledge are the most effective tools to counter denialism rather than restrictive legislation.

State should invest in inclusive, evidence based education.

Critical thinking, digital literacy and robust memorialisation processes.

Digital technologies, social media and artificial intelligence systems have also amplified the scope, reach and monetization of denialist content.

So I call on technology companies to redouble their efforts to ensure regular human rights due diligence and review.

Technology companies must act with heightened diligence to avoid fuelling denialism, disinformation and hate speech.

And to do so, they must ensure transparency, address business models that incentivize denialist content, address sorry, business models that incentivize denialist content, and ensure remedies to ensure that their platforms are safe for marginalised persons or groups, as well as, of course, strengthening cooperation with civil society organisations.

[Other language spoken]

I would like also to stress on this last note that my next report to the General Assembly will address specifically the issue of new technologies and transitional justice.

So both reports will be complementary and both reports are actually on my website.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Mr Duhim, the Special Rapporteur will now take questions.

Please state your name and organisation.

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Thank you very much.

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[Other language spoken]

Emma, I don't know if you still have a question, Emma Fajr from Writers Online.

Maybe it was, it was covered in that very comprehensive response.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any other questions for this special rapporteur?

If there are no other questions, then we will close this unless there's something, would you like to add something?

No, no, no, I, I'm, I just, I just reiterate the importance of addressing the issues of denialism, revisionism and transitional justice.

I think this is a a extremely worrisome situation.

I think politicians are intentionally using these strategies to polarise societies for political and ideological means, not necessarily in post conflict or post dictatorship context, but more broadly.

I think my report, which analyses the concepts of denialism, revisionism, and so forth, and analyses concrete examples and provides a series of recommendations, will be crucial to define public policies in the future in contexts of transitional justice as well as in other contexts as well.

So, as I was saying to the states yesterday, who were unanimous in saying that this was an extremely important and useful report, now it's time for the states to implement the recommendations.

The main recommendations that I formulate encourage states, yes, to fight hatred, incitement to violence, racism that are fed by this denialism and revisionism, but also and, and mostly to fight this phenomenon by ensuring that we live in transparent societies, in societies where the social debate is a healthy 1.

There's a healthy democratic debates where we look at our history based on facts, on science, on evidence that's been established by tribunals and truth commissions and so forth.

Not on feelings, not on emotions, but on factual basis.

And that we make sure that we look at our past and our future from a critical perspective.

That we ensure that our next generations are well versed into critical thinking, are well versed in understanding the past, are well versed in understanding also the impact of new technologies on our reading of the past.

The report emphasises emphasises the fact that new technologies are extremely dangerous in this perspective because not only can they feed denialists and revisionist discourses, but also they can question the the the demonstrated evidence based, archive based factual history through artificially created information and so forth.

And in my personal opinion, one of the most vicious effects that this has on the public is that it creates a form of apathy where people don't know what's true and what's false and in the end care less and less about the truth.

My mandate is to ensure that victims right to truth, to access the information as to what has occurred resists this apathy and that the political prioritisation that that states attribute to ensuring the truth justice reparation guarantees a non recurrence and memory is prioritised that it's at the core of transitional justice policies.

Thank you very much.

Thank you and thank you to the Special Rapporteur for being here and for all of you for joining us today.

We will now close this press conference.

Have a good afternoon.