Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Tracing the Implementation of the Panamanian Truth Commission Recommendations

Facing international and national pressure because human remains continued to emerge throughout 1999 and 2000 on sites known to have been bases of the military regime, President Moscoso, decreed the establishment of a truth commission on January, 18 2001. This paper examines the implementation record of the 11 recommendations issued by this commission focusing on extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearance in operation until April 2002. Mainly aiming to protect the legacy of the commission and granting victims reparations or judicial response, the majority of the recommendations are either unimplemented or partially implemented. Where some implementation has occurred, like the adaptation of the domestic legislation to international standards, it has been the result of the right civil servant at the right place and time, with the IACHR and the IAComHR acting as supporting actors. This limited implementation can be traced to a series of factors: first, lack of political will and near absence of interest from the judicial branch; second, lack of strength of victims' organisations and, more generally, the local human rights movement; third, the humiliation of the commission once it was uncovered that one of the its forensic anthropologists had planted evidence; and, finally, the nature, structure and complexity of the recommendations themselves, some of which can be characterised as intangible or aspirational. The conclusion is that, unless they are part of a wider human rights policy, bolstered by deep social and political support, truth commissions' reports will remain historic documents with little political or legal impact.