International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations

Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua. Speakers: Michael Simon, chair of Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (in-person) Ariela Peralta Distefano, expert member of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (online) Reed Brody, expert member of Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (online) Moderated by: Todd Pitman, OHCHR Watch the HRC - Press conference: Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua! Press Conferences

Update on the Middle East crisis. Watch the OHCHR - Media Stakeout: Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Media Stakeouts

  The right to the truth is an inalienable, autonomous human right concerning the state's obligation to investigate and disclose facts regarding gross human rights violations. The UN study E/CN.4/2006/91  analyses of its application to victims and transitional justice , often discussed in relation to enforced disappearances. Transitional justice consists of judicial and non-judicial measures implemented by societies emerging from conflict or repression to address massive human rights violations. It aims to provide victim recognition, ensure accountability, foster reconciliation, and prevent future abuses. Key mechanisms include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations, and institutional reform. Key Principles and Goals Victim-Centered : Focusing on the rights and needs of victims to reparation, truth, and justice. Accountability: Holding perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable through national or international courts . Truth-Seeking: Investigating and revealing the tr...

Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero,

  The right to the truth is often invoked in the context of gross violations of human rights and grave breaches of humanitarian law. The relatives of victims of summary executions, enforced disappearance, missing persons, abducted children, torture, require to know what happened to them. The right to the truth implies knowing the full and complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances, and who participated in them, including knowing the circumstances in which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them.

  Each year, on 24 March, the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims is observed. This annual observance pays tribute to the memory of Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero, who was murdered on 24 March 1980. Monsignor Romero was actively engaged in denouncing violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable individuals in El Salvador. The purpose of the Day is to: Honour the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice; Pay tribute to those who have devoted their lives to, and lost their lives in, the struggle to promote and protect human rights for all; Recognize, in particular, the important work and values of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, of El Salvador, who was assasinated on 24 March 1980, after denouncing violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable populations and defending the principles of protecting live...