Right to truth is the right, in the case of grave violations of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, for the victims and their families or societies to have access to the truth of what happened. The right to truth is closely related to, but distinct from, the

state obligation State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

to investigate and prosecute serious state violations of human rights. Right to truth is a form of victims' rights; it is especially relevant to

transitional justice Transitional justice is a process which responds to human rights violations through judicial redress, political reforms and cultural healing efforts and other measures in order to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuse in a region or countr ...

in dealing with past abuses of human rights. In 2006, Yasmin Naqvi concluded that the right to truth "stands somewhere on the threshold of a legal norm and a narrative device ... somewhere above a good argument and somewhere below a clear legal rule".

Origins

The idea of a legal right to truth is distinct from the pre-existing understanding of the importance of establishing the truth about what happened in a case of human rights violation. In 1977,

Protocol I Protocol I (also Additional Protocol I and AP I) is a 1977 amendment Protocol (diplomacy), protocol to the Geneva Conventions concerning the protection of civilian casualty, civilian victims of international war, including "armed conflicts in ...

to the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

enshrined a right for families of people killed in armed conflicts to find out what happened to their relatives. A 1993 conference at the Catholic Institute for International Relations addressed the right to truth. The right to truth has been recognized in international

soft law The term ''soft law'' refers to quasi-legal instruments (like recommendations or guidelines) which do not have any legally binding force, or whose binding force is somewhat weaker than the binding force of traditional law. Soft law is often contra ...

instruments such as the United Nations Principles to Combat Impunity (2005) and UN General Assembly Resolution 60/147, as well as by the 2011 appointment of a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of non-Recurrence. In 2006, the

United Nations Human Rights Commission The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of th ...

determined that there was an "inalienable and autonomous right" to truth. The

International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to prevent forced disappearance, which, as defined in international l ...

also guarantees victims of

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...

a right to know the circumstances of the disappearance, but it is not universally ratified. According to Patricia Naftali, the right to truth remains elusive because it is a concept with different definitions (sometimes contradictory), which is deployed in support of a variety of human rights claims.

Cases

As a result of cases before international courts that find states in breach of human rights, states have been required to: #Conduct

effective investigation Effectiveness or effectivity is the capability of producing a desired result or the ability to produce desired output. When something is deemed effective, it means it has an intended or expected outcome, or produces a deep, vivid impression. Et ...

s and prosecute the responsible individuals #Reveal information regarding missing persons #Publicly apologize and acknowledge the violation of human rights #Publish the court judgement #Compensate victims #Reimburse court costs of claimants #Improve security to allow the return of

displaced persons Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displaceme ...

#Take steps to avert re-occurrence of the violation #Change national laws #Institute measures to improve compliance with international human rights instruments #Construct memorials to commemorate the human rights violation

United Nations Human Rights Committee

The first case that articulated a right to truth in international human rights jurisprudence was a forced disappearance case, '' Quinteros v. Uruguay'' (1983); the UN Human Rights Committee determined that, according to the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom ...

, the mother of the victim had "the right to know what has happened to her daughter. In these respects, she too is a victim of the violations of the Covenant suffered by her daughter in particular, of article 7 CCPR. In '' Saadoun v. Algeria'' (2003), regarding a man who was forcibly disappeared during the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War (), known in Algeria as the Black Decade (, ), was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 11 January 1992 (following a 1992 Algerian coup d'état, coup negating an Islami ...

, the Committee determined that failure to investigate gave rise to a new violation of the ICCPR. In this case, Algeria had proclaimed an amnesty for crimes committed during the "national tragedy".

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Case law of the

Inter-American Court of Human Rights The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court H.R.) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a human r ...

has tended towards an autonomous right to truth. Because of right to truth, the IACHR has invalidated agreements that grant

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

to human rights violators, as in ' (2001). In 1985, six years before Guatemala accepted the jurisdiction of the IACHR, American journalist

Nicholas Blake Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...

disappeared. In '' Blake v. Guatemala'' (1998), the IACHR determined that Guatemalan efforts to obstruct his family's search for the truth constituted inhuman treatment contrary to the

American Convention on Human Rights The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), also known as the Pact of San José or by its Spanish name used in most of the signatory nations, ''Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos'', is an international human rights instrument. It was ...

. The IACHR has often repeated its opinion:

European Court of Human Rights

There is also case law of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

relevant to right to truth. In '' Cyprus v. Turkey'' (2001), the ECtHR ruled against Turkey in the case of

Greek Cypriots Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greeks, Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming al ...

who had been last seen in the custody of Turkish troops. The anguish of surviving relatives constituted a "continuing violation of

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article(s) may also refer to: ...

(ECHR) with respect to the relatives of the Greek-Cypriot missing persons." In '' El-Masri v. Macedonia'' (2012), the ECtHR established that North Macedonia had violated the Convention in allowing El-Masri to be taken into US custody during

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism, euphemistically-named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during th ...

. The court noted that Macedonian authorities had "deprived the applicant of being informed of what had happened, including of getting an accurate account of the suffering he had allegedly endured and the role of those responsible for his alleged ordeal" as well as hidden this information from the public at large. According to law professor Arianna Vedaschi, "the decision given in El-Masri showed innovative legal reasoning and a wholly innovative attitude of the judges towards the far-reaching enforcement of the right to the truth". In ''

Janowiec and Others v. Russia ''Janowiec and Others v. Russia'' (also sometimes known as the Katyn case) was a case brought before the European Court of Human Rights in 2007 and concluded in 2013 concerning the issue of human right violations in the context of the Katyn massa ...

'' (2013), the court found no violation of the convention regarding Russian investigations into the 1940

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

, but this ruling was on the principle of non-retroactivity because the massacre happened before the ECHR was drafted. Legal scholar James A. Sweeney criticized the ECtHR's approach to right-to-truth cases:

National law

Argentine law recognizes the right to truth, with a ''

sui generis ( , ) is a Latin phrase that means "of its/their own kind" or "in a class by itself", therefore "unique". It denotes an exclusion to the larger system an object is in relation to. Several disciplines use the term to refer to unique entities. ...

'' legal proceeding called '' juicio por la verdad'' (trial for the truth) developed in the aftermath of the

National Reorganization Process The National Reorganization Process ( PRN; often simply , "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as the ("last military junta"), ("last military dictatorship") ...

Potential forums

It has been suggested that victims might rely on Article 5 of the

African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent. It emerged under ...

in right-to-truth cases before the

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, also known simply as the African Court, is an international court established by member states of the African Union (AU) to implement provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Right ...

. The

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

's victim-centered approach may prove conducive to a right to truth.

Other examples

According to legal scholar Agostina Latino, the right to truth related to the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

extends beyond Armenian genocide survivors to their descendants as well as Armenians at large. Latino states that, as the successor to the Ottoman government that committed the genocide, the Turkish government's ongoing Armenian genocide denial violates their right to truth. For example, there are monuments and streets named after the perpetrators, but not the victims. The Inter-American Court and some theorists have suggested that truth-telling may be a form of partial reparations to victims of human rights abuses. Right to truth is related to the fight against

impunity Impunity is the ability to act with exemption from punishments, losses, or other negative consequences. In the international law of human rights, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itsel ...

as establishing the truth about a past event is the first step in holding perpetrators accountable.

Right to Truth Day

Since 2010, the UN has commemorated International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, or Right to Truth Day, on 24 March, the anniversary of the murder of El Salvador archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero.