The Darfur Commission as a Model for Future Responses to Crisis Situations

The various special procedures so far set up by the Commissionon Human Rights (CHR) to investigate serious violations of humanrights are very different from what can be achieved by a commissionof inquiry. There is almost no comparison in terms of the scaleof resources, the expertise mobilized, the amount of detailcontained in the Commission's Report, the precision and weightof the legal analysis, and the consequent power of the finalproduct to galvanize both public opinion and inter-governmentalaction. The Darfur Commission may also serve to expand the bridgebeing built between the Commission of Human Rights and the SecurityCouncil (SC). The practice of appointing commissions of inquiryhas immense potential in that it can provide the type of specialistinput necessary if the human rights machinery and the SC areto form part of a continuum. Commissions of inquiry reportsmay contribute to promoting transparency and accountabilityin the work of the SC, since the Council, when determining whetheror not to take action in a human rights situation, has to respondto a carefully documented and a well argued analytical report.Finally, the establishment of such commissions to evaluate whetheror not a situation warrants referral to the ICC provides anappropriate filtering mechanism before the Council takes a decision.