PASTOR RAYMOND KOH Admissibility of Evidence 73. The Panel is not constrained or limited by the Evidence Act 1950 in the recep�on of evidence during the Public Inquiry. A flexible approach is taken whereby evidence which is not usually admi�ed in criminal and civil proceedings may be received by the Public Inquiry. This is recognised by Sec�on 14(1)(a) and (d) of the Act where it states the “The Commission shall, for the purposes of an inquiry under this Act, have the power - (a) to procure and receive all such evidence, wri�en or oral, and to examine all such persons as witnesses, as the Commission thinks necessary or desirable to procure or examine;” and “(d) to admit notwithstanding any of the provisions of the Evidence Act 1950 [Act 56], any evidence, whether wri�en or oral, which may be inadmissible in civil or criminal proceedings. 74. This flexibility is in line with interna�onal standards regarding human rights inquiries in the following cases: 74.1. In Bamaca-Velasquez v Guatemala 22 , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held: “97. In an interna�onal tribunal such as the Court, whose aim is the protec�on of human rights, the proceeding has its own characteris�cs that differen�ate it from the domes�c process. The former is less formal and more flexible than the la�er, which does not imply that it fails to ensure legal certainty and procedural balance to the par�es. This grants the Court a greater la�tude to use logic and experience in evalua�ng the evidence rendered to it on the per�nent facts. 131. Taking this into account, the Court a�ributes a high proba�ve value to tes�monial evidence in proceedings of this type, that is, in the context and circumstances of cases of forced disappearance, with all the a�endant difficul�es, when, owing to the very nature of the crime, proof essen�ally takes the form of indirect and circumstan�al evidence." 74.2. In Velasquez-Rodriguez v Honduras 23 , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held that direct evidence is not the only type of evidence 22 IACHR Series C No 70 ( Official Cita�on) [2000] IACHR 7 (Other Reference) IHRL 1453 (IACHR 2000) (OUP reference); IACHR Series C No 91 (Official Cita�on) [2002] IACHR 1 (Other Reference ) IHRL 1474 (IACHR 2002) (OUP reference). 23 Inter-Am.Ct.H.R. (Ser. C) No. 4 (1988), Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR), 29 July 1988. 28