Knowing the Truth is a

Right (Part B)
 Truth-seeking the right to know the past

• International law recognizes rights of victims/survivors to know

circumstances of serious violations of their human rights and
who was responsible for these violations

• Can help victims find closure by learning more about the events
they suffered
• Truth-seeking initiatives:
 Freedom of Information legislation
 Declassification of archives
 Investigation into the missing and disappeared
 Establishment of non-judicial commission of inquiry (truth commissions)

• Important to include a variety of groups in different roles:

 Local community and regional representatives
 Civil society organisations, NGOs, aid agencies
 Governmental and judicial entities
 Right to truth:
• Families have the right to know the fate of relatives reported missing or
disappeared during armed conflicts or periods of extreme state-
sponsored violence
• Victims and communities affected by past crimes have the right to know
the identity of suspected perpetrators

• Emerging principle in customary international law, recognized in many jurisdictions

• Can be traced under international humanitarian law (recognised by Art 32 and 33 of
1977 Additional Protocol to Geneva Conventions of 1949)
• Recognized under UN principles on impunity, bi-regional bodies, some national courts
Truth-seeking processes may:
• Investigate past abuses
• Seek redress for victims and families
• Identify guilty parties/individuals
• Investigate root causes and social
impact
• Find out what happened in individual
cases.
• Example of truth-seeking process –
investigations into ‘adoptions’ under
Argentina’s junta in 1976-1983
• Hundreds of babies (parents killed
by military dictatorship) were given
to new families
• Babies’ origins and identities kept
secret or deliberately not thought of
• Often adoptive families were close
to the state or political elites