What is Truth-seeking?

Truth-seeking is a process that occurs during post-conflict or post-authoritarian reconstruction and includes a number of investigative steps to help societies make sense of the atrocities they have suffered and to help prevent future injustices.  

After a period of abuse some actors tend to justify violence with narratives that condone or justify cruelty. Truth-seeking is a means by which societies can challenge the official discourse to find alternative explanations for what occurred in the past, creating a more democratic and inclusive dialogue. Through the truth-seeking process victims are able to find closure by learning more about the events they suffered, such as the fate of disappeared individuals, or why certain people were targeted for abuse. Truth-seeking is essential because sustainable peace can be achieved only when a society addresses its past.

Truth-seeking involves the protection of evidence, the opening and maintenance of archives, the opening and publication of state information, and production of comprehensive reports. These efforts often come from official inquiry groups called truth commissions. In the absence of an official, government-sanctioned truth commission, some local communities or civil society groups seek to recognize and investigate the legacy of past human rights abuses through local or unofficial truth-seeking initiatives. Such actions can help lead to the development of more formal truth commissions, as well as other transitional justice mechanisms, including vetting, prosecutions, and reparations.

Truth Commissions

Truth commissions are non-judicial, independent panels of inquiry typically set up to establish the facts and context of serious violations of human rights or of international humanitarian law in a country’s past. Commissions’ members are usually empowered to conduct research, support victims, and propose policy recommendations to prevent recurrence of crimes. Through their investigations, the commissions may aim to discover and learn more about past abuses, or formally acknowledge them. They may aim to prepare the way for prosecutions and recommend institutional reforms. Most commissions focus on victims’ needs as a path toward reconciliation and reducing conflict about what occurred in the past.

Since truth commissions are created in special circumstances, their success depends on their credibility and transparency. Thus, it is crucial that the public perceives the commission to be free from undue governmental or societal pressure. A truth commission must have full autonomy to control its resources, conduct its own investigations, build alliances, and propose policy. Truth commissions should also be used as a means of victim empowerment. Those who suffered from mass atrocity usually come from the most vulnerable and disenfranchised sectors of society; therefore, truth commissions should focus on victims’ rights, interests, and needs. Seeking the truth through victims’ testimony educates the public and highlights issues of inclusion and citizens’ rights.

Truth commissions include:

• Public testimony: Hearings recognize the experiences of victims and examine experts’ views.
• Final reports: Comprehensive reports give policymakers and researchers key documentation, and constitute a compelling moral narrative.
• Policy recommendations: Recommendations emphasize the importance and urgency of reforming institutions responsible for abuse or in establishing mechanisms to prevent the recurrence of crimes.

                                                                                                                                                                      Potential of Truth Commissions

Truth commissions contribute to an environment of reconciliation and are a gateway to other transitional justice approaches. Truth-seeking can encourage a society to value criminal justice, consider reparations, and more effectively impose institutional reform. At times when other methods of handling abuses are unavailable, for example when the judiciary does not have adequate capacity, truth commissions are useful and are positive alternatives to inaction.

Truth commissions offer a rare opportunity to publicly engage with groups that have been marginalized by providing a stage through which they will share their suffering and experiences with the nation. Through this process truth commissions can empower and strengthen marginalized populations and help them embed their needs into the national agenda. Truth commissions can also provide a conducive environment for making peace more sustainable by helping formerly hostile communities understand each other, rebuilding trust between citizens and the state, and helping communities reintegrate low-level rank-and-file perpetrators. They can also give the state an opportunity to recognize what happened in the past and apologize.

With the opportunity that truth commissions provide, the truth recovery processes can lead to more inclusion in participatory democracy and social justice. Truth-seeking should be used as a tool to move toward greater respect for human rights and, in that sense, toward recognition of the rights of all, in their inclusion and participation in democracy.

Unofficial or Local Truth-seeking Initiatives

Unofficial or local truth-seeking is an approach that became pervasive in Latin America beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, with the demise of military governments. Religious communities, academic institutions, and local governments cooperated to document human rights violations and issue comprehensive reports that sometimes prompted post-dictatorial governments to take action. Unofficial truth projects represent an important shift away from a one-size-fits-all approach to accountability and justice, and also respect social context and enrich policy. They offer human rights organizations, religious communities, victims’ groups, universities, and municipal governments opportunities for creative roles in the truth-seeking process.

Some unofficial truth projects are very similar to truth commissions. These initiatives tend to complement or precede state-led projects and produce reports similar in shape and scope to those of truth commissions. Centers that hold records of human rights violations, such as churches or NGOs, may build the basis for future truth-telling activities. In communities where the public demands criminal trials, unofficial truth projects can take the form of mock-trials that present abuses. Local communities also engage in truth-telling through art, video, theater, and literature projects that focus on the past. These initiatives may lead to the creation of memorials, museums, and traveling exhibits.

ICTJ’s Role

ICTJ has supported governments, civil society, and the international community to carry out the work of truth commissions in 12 countries as well as several unofficial truth projects, and has identified practices that can contribute to the design and implementation of effective truth-seeking with sustainable legacies.

ICTJ conducts precise analysis of the conditions surrounding the launch of a truth-seeking and memorialization process; it engages early with key stakeholders to assess their expectations and identify potential problematic areas. ICTJ provides feedback on the normative framework necessary for the establishment of a commission, in the form of memoranda and expert testimony to policymakers. The center advocates for consultation with victims, in forms appropriate to the political and security environment, as a mechanism to build legitimacy and relevance to any project. While ICTJ strongly supports the international normative progress in regard to the right to truth, it does not believe truth commissions must adhere to a single model, and presents in any given situation a number of options regarding the functions, mandate, powers, and implementation of commissions, as appropriate to local conditions. In all the experiences it has supported, the center has remained involved well after the work of the truth commission, supporting policy follow-up.

(Updated January 2010)