Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The challenge of reconciliation • 313Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, which set out remedial measures that states must undertaketo satisfy their duty to guard against impunity from past human rights violationsand prevent their reoccurrence. This includes victims’ right to know the truth aboutwhat happened to them and their missing family members. Society at large also hasthe right to know the truth about what happened in the past and what circumstancesled to mass human rights violations. The state has a duty to safeguard this knowledgeand to ensure that proper documentation is preserved in archives and history books.The Joinet-Orentlicher Principles state, “The full and effective exercise of the right totruth is ensured through preservation of archives.” Equally important, ready access tothe archives must be facilitated for victims and their relatives, and for the purposes ofresearch (principles 5, 14, 15, 16). 158The Commission notes that in his August 2013 report to the United Nations HumanRights Council, Pablo de Greiff, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth,Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, made specific reference tothe importance of archives. He found that both a truth commission’s own records andthose housed in national, regional, and local archives extend the life and legacy ofthe truth commission’s work. Archives can serve as permanent sites where post-commissionaccountability and the right to truth can be realized. 159 He further explainedthat archives “are a means of guaranteeing that the voices of victims will not be lost,and they contribute to a culture of memorialisation and remembrance. They also providea safeguard against revisionism and denial—essential given the long durationand non-linearity of social reconciliation and integration processes.” 160 He concludedthat “truth commissions and national archives contribute in a substantial manner torealizing the right to truth and may further criminal prosecutions, reparations, andinstitutional and personnel reforms,” and recommended that international archivalstandards be established. 161Although de Greiff does not reference Indigenous peoples specifically, we notethat in many countries, including Canada, the access to, and protection of, historicalrecords have been instrumental in advancing the rights of Indigenous peoplesand documenting the state’s wrongful actions. In the wake of the South African andother truth commissions, some archivists have come to see themselves not simplyas neutral custodians of national history, but also as professionals who are responsiblefor ensuring that records documenting past injustices are preserved and used tostrengthen government accountability and support justice. 162Calls to Action69) We call upon Library and Archives Canada to:i. Fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights ofIndigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as