Mr. President, Excellencies,
The Sovereign Order of Malta wishes to express its thanks to the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Professor Fabián Salvioli.
We would like to congratulate the Special Rapporteur and his team for their well-documented reports (A/HRC51/34 and Add. 1 & Add. 2) on “Role and responsibilities of non-State actors in transitional justice processes”.
The Order of Malta would like to highlight the value of the concrete action of many religious actors in transitional justice processes.
Allow me to briefly describe the following examples, among others:
- Argentina (Catholic Bishop Jaime de Nevares, Methodist Bishop Carols T. Gattinoni, Rabbi Marshall Meyer)
- Brasil (Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns and Rev. Jaime Wright, Presbyterian Pastor)
- Chile (with the contribution of the Vicaria de la Solidaridad)
- East Timor (Father Jovito Araujo, Catholic Priest, Vice Chairperson, and Rev. Agustinho de Vasconselos, Protestant Church Minister, National Commissioner)
- Guatemala ( NUNCA MAS. Proyecto Interdiocesano Recuperacion de la Memoria Historica)
- Panama (Lawyer and Catholic activist Alberto Santiago Almanza Henriquez, with Anglican Bishop Julio E. Murray among the Truth Commission Members)
- Nigeria (Catholic Bishop Matthew Kukah, Member of the Nigerian Investigation Commission of Human Rights Violations 1999-2001, Chair of the National Political Reform Conference 2005, since 2005 Chair of the Ogoni-Shell Reconciliation, assisted by the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral)
- South Africa (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
- Uruguay (chaired by Msgr. Nicolas Cotugno, Catholic Bishop, with Fr. Luis Perez Aguirre, sj).
The Order of Malta attaches great importance to this issue and would be pleased to support the Special Rapporteur in his important work.
Thank you.
