Speeches in Signing of Agreements

Signing of Agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office

Speech by CVR President

Madam Public Prosecutor,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Because of the nature of its mandate, intimately linked with safeguarding human rights in our country, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has always perceived in the Public Prosecutor’s Office a natural interlocutor. The affinity of our missions has been expressed in several activities directed to recover the truth on violence actions that were tried to be buried forever. In this way, signing this agreement is actually the formalization of an active link that has already produced valuable fruits and that, we are sure, will continue producing them in the following months.

In a country where institutional precariousness is known as one of the deepest reasons of our great social and political problems, the task we are performing and that we will perform in the future becomes particularly relevant. To a great extent, in our hands lies the possibility of showing Peruvians that our country can change, that Peru has a capacity to mend past omissions, that the organizations in which the Peruvian state and society express themselves are now ready to fully comply with the functions for which they were created, that is, defending the citizens and the rule of law.

Cooperation between our two institutions will be through a very appropriate relationship, the Specialized Prosecutor for forced disappearances, out-of-law executions and clandestine burial exhumations. We are sure that our common task will be now more efficient and, hence, beneficial for citizens who expect acknowledgement and justice for too long.

According to the agreement we sign today, interinstitutional cooperation between the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shall comprise exchange of information, mutual support for developing investigations, coordination for the sensitive task of exhumating human remains in common burials and the protection of direct and indirect witnesses.

Therefore, there is a broad range of activities that are covered by this indispensable interinstitutional agreement to better achieve our goals, related activities, to consolidate our democracy by means of exposing the truth on past violence and acknowledging the victims and their families, that is, restoring long delayed justice in our country.

As we know, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission must have an inevitably short life. Its existence for an indefinite period would only denature its essence and the goal for which it was created. In this period - we are sure - we shall reach many important achievements to recover justice. But the wrongs to straighten are big, the truths to discover are many, the responsibilities to be determined are elusive and numerous. Thus, we are also convinced that at the end of our mandate there will still be tasks to be completed. This is why it is important that Peruvians learns that there are permanent institutions genuinely committed with these urgent tasks and that they will be there with their doors open to receive the numerous Peruvians that will still seek that elementary justice that oftentimes is simply knowing where their beloved ones lie dead. This is why signing this agreement is very encouraging for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, because it point out that the Public Prosecutor’s office is and shall be one of those institutions with which Peruvians of all kinds can count now. Therefore, madam Public Prosecutor, Nelly Calderon, I thank you for this gesture of support and commitment with seeking the truth, recovering justice and, eventually inaugurating a path towards the reconciliation of Peruvian society.

Salomon Lerner Febres
President
Truth and Reconciliation Commission