Commissioning justice Truth commissions and criminal justice 19 and legislative reform.51 The 2002 Commission of Ghana could not pass evidence to prosecution authorities because an absolute immunity from civil and criminal proceedings had been granted to officials of past governments; in its final report, it recommended that the amnesty be put to a referendum.52 When the 2003 Commission was established in Chile, the 1978 amnesty law was still officially in force.53 The 2005 Commission in the Republic of Korea has the power to recommend ‘immunity’ (i.e. exemption from punishment), in addition to mitigation of punishment or pardon, for perpetrators who cooperate with its investigation;54 most of the crimes under its mandate, however, cannot be prosecuted because of statutes of limitation (15 years under Korean law). Just as the Commission may address the ‘right to truth’ component of the struggle against impunity better than the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the contrary may be the case with respect to the ‘right to justice’ component. Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2004, Vol. 1, p45, para80. Three (3) other truth commissions were limited by their mandate or by the political situation in the country. The 1991 Commission in El Salvador named alleged perpetrators and affirmed that those responsible for the crimes it had investigated should be punished; concerned about the shortcomings of the Salvadoran judicial system, however, it did not provide evidence to national courts and stopped short of recommending prosecutions.55 Despite its very limited mandate and powers, the 2003 Algerian Commission publicly attributed responsibility for more than 6,000 enforced disappearances to the Algerian security forces.56 The mandate of the 2004 Moroccan Commission was explicitly non-judicial and excluded the determination of individual criminal responsibility;57 nonetheless, the Commission reminded victims of human rights violations and their families of their right to file complaints before civil and criminal courts and called for the dismissal of public officials alleged to have committed serious human rights violations.58 Index: POL 30/004/2010 Amnesty International April 2010