90 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ARMED CONFLICT The Court considers that Israel also has an obligation to compensate, in accordance with the applicable rules of international law, all natural or legal persons having suffered any form of material damage as a result of the wall’s construction.”130 D.  OTHER FORMS OF JUSTICE Over the past few years, new mechanisms for accountability and victims’ right to the truth and to reparation, particularly in post-conflict situations, have evolved. Transitional justice mechanisms, for example, have been developed at the national level as means to facilitate the end of hostilities, while preserving the State’s obligation to ensure accountability and the victims’ right to truth and reparation. Often countries emerging from civil war or authoritarian rule create truth commissions during the immediate post-conflict or transition period. These commissions are given a relatively short period for investigations and public hearings before completing their work with a final public report. While truth commissions do not replace the need for prosecutions, they offer some form of accountability that serves the interests of addressing situations where prosecutions for massive crimes are impossible or unlikely.131 It is important to note that for a truth and reconciliation process to succeed, violent conflict, war or repression must have come to an end. It is possible that the de facto security situation will not yet have fully improved, and truth commissions often do work in a context where victims and witnesses are afraid to speak publicly or to be seen to cooperate with the commission. But if a war or violent conflict is still actively continuing throughout the country, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient space to undertake a serious inquiry.   Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall, paras. 152–153.   For a detailed analysis of truth and reconciliation mechanisms, see Rule-of-Law Tools for Post-Conflict States: Truth Commissions (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.06. XIV.5). 130 131