Right to truth in International Human Rights Law

Following the grave and massive violations of human rights throughout the 20th century, efforts to combat impunity and to recover the truth have multiplied in order to come to terms with the past and to prevent the recurrence of past human rights violations. Social claims of truth about the past were recognized in the last decades of the 20th century under the heading of 'Right to Truth.' The right to truth is defined as the right of the victims and of the entire society to know the truth about the facts that have led to grave human rights violations and the identity of perpetrators. The present thesis aims to study the processes of legal recognition of social claims for recovery of the truth about gross human rights violations in the past as a fundamental human right.