New report provides truth-seeking boards with guidance for producing transformative final reports

New York, October 2, 2024 –In societies grappling with the legacies of mass atrocities, truth-seeking panels and the reports they produce can be instrumental in uncovering guilt, uncovering root causes, and preventing a recurrence of violence or oppression. Today, ICTJ releases a new research report that will serve as a practical guide for those working on truth commissions and investigative panels to transform large amounts of data and information into credible reports.

When factual reports are the result of thorough investigations and are presented coherently and convincingly, they can become catalysts for change. Furthermore, such reports can clearly acknowledge the harm suffered by victims. In doing so, they begin the process of restoring the human dignity of the victims and social healing.

“Reports That Transform: Reporting Truth and Making Impact” draws on real-world experiences from multiple truth commissions and includes excerpts and examples from operational documents. “The report will be an indispensable guide for investigators, researchers and report writers working on large-scale investigations,” said Anna Myriam Roccatello, ICTJ program director and deputy executive director.

Transforming data collected from different sources is a challenge for any truth commission or investigative body. “Virtually all major investigations underestimate the effort and time required to collect and analyze information and write the final report,” notes Howard Varney, the report’s author and a senior ICTJ expert.

This new study explains how to make sense of a mountain of collected data, what key questions to ask and solve, and how to transform data into a readable and useful final report. It’s about how to write reports, develop findings and recommendations, and deal with political influence. It also includes examples of typical report formats.

A good factual report “should do more than just record what happened, it should inspire people to do better, to embrace new values, and to build a new humane and caring society,” Varney writes in the introduction. “This guide will help practitioners create meaningful reports,” emphasizes ICTJ Executive Director Fernando Travesí, “reports that provide answers to contribute to the transformation of society.”

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PHOTO: United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto (left) receives a report from the Commission on Historical Enlightenment of Guatemala entitled, from Otilia Lux de Coti, a member of the commission, during a ceremony at the capital’s National Theater on February 25 “Memory of Silence”. , 1999. (Reuters)