Nunca Más (Never Again)

Report of Conadep (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) - 1984
 

Formed after democracy was restored in Argentina in 1983, the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons was chartered to investigate the fates of the thousands who disappeared during the junta rule. The commission was to receive depositions and evidence concerning these events, and pass the information to the courts, in those cases where crimes had been committed. The commission's report would not extend, however, to determine responsibility, only to deliver an unbiased chronicle of the events. 

In order to guarantee objectivity, the National executive resolved that the commission be comprised of individuals who enjoyed national & international prestige, chosen for their consistent stance in defence of human rights. They would represent different walks of life and political affiliations or ideologies.

The new president elect of the democratic republic, Dr. Raul Alfonsin, called upon the folowing people to carry out their function independently and ad honorem:

Ricardo Colombres 
Rene Favarolo 
Hilario Fernandez Long 
Carlos T. Gattinoni 
Gregorio Klimovsky 
Marshall T. Meyer 
Jaime F. de Nevares 
Eduardo Rabossi 
Magdelena Ruiz Guinazú 
Ernesto Sabato 

By the same decree, the government invited both chambers in congress to send three representatives to join the commission. Only the chamber of Deputies complied by electing the members:

Santiago Marcelino Lopez 
Hugo Diogenes Piucill 
Horacio Hugo Huarte 

Prior to this, on December 29th, 1983, Ernesto Sabato was unanimously elected President of the commission. Five departments were created to deal with the different aspects of the Commission's work: 

Depositions Department under Sra. Graciela Fernandez Meijide 
Documentation and Data Processing Department under Dr. Daniel Salvador 
Procedures Department under Dr. Raul Aragon 
Legal Affairs Department under Dr. Alberto Mansur 
Administrative Department under Dr. Leopoldo Silgueira 

The commission has presided over hearings of thousands of cases of abduction, disappearance, torture, and executions. Every individual case was documented in a numbered file. It compiled over 50,000 pages of documentation [We wish they were made available digitally over the Internet] A shocking summary was published as an official report in Spanish in 1984. Faced with the thousands of testimonies and horrific facts the commission concluded with a set of recomendations to pursue legal action against the responsible.  

The report of the commission was published in English with an introduction by Ronald Dworkin, as a book under the name Nunca Mas (Never Again), published by Farrar Straus Giroux, New York. Also published in London by Faber and Faber Ltd, 1986. ISBN 0374223505. While the report explicitly states that the documented cases are by no means exhaustive, and that many cases were most probably left unreported, till this date, this report is the most extensive document available publicly.

Report of Conadep (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) - 1984