Impunity and the Right to Truth in the Inter-American System of Human Rights

Abstract

During the 1970s and the 1980s, Latin America witnessed widespread violations of human rights. However, from the early 1980s, the beginning of democratic transition in the region led to an intense debate on impunity and the controversial “right to truth”: the right to learn about what had occurred under past repressive rule. The research on impunity and the right to truth in Latin America has mostly been focused on national approaches or the efforts of the UN. Hitherto, the general role of the inter-American human rights system has barely been analysed, despite its remarkable role during the repressive period of the 1970s and early 1980s. Hence, this article will supplement existing research efforts by shedding some light on the performance of the Organisation of American States (OAS) regarding impunity and the right to truth. Whether there was a general strategy in the OAS to address the problem and what perspectives for the inter-American system exist in this regard are some of the main questions addressed by this article.