A/HRC/5/7 page 4 I. ASPECTS, NATURE AND CONTENT OF THE RIGHT TO THE TRUTH 8. The conclusions of the study on the right to the truth indicate that the right to the truth is rooted in a series of resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during the 1970s on the issue of disappeared persons. This right was subsequently given implicit recognition in international humanitarian law, through article 32 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I). 9. The right to the truth subsequently featured as one of the three mainstays of action to combat impunity, alongside the right to justice and the right to reparation. 10. In the same spirit, disclosure of the truth has been promoted as a form of reparation - or, more precisely, of satisfaction - in the Basic Principles and Guidelines adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 60/147. 11. The study on the right to the truth recalls the contributions made by the jurisprudence of regional human rights courts and the views adopted by the United Nations treaty monitoring bodies, which have helped flesh out this right. 12. The adoption by the General Assembly, in its resolution 61/177, of the recent International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance marked an important milestone in giving recognition to the right to the truth, an achievement welcomed by a number of States in their responses to the note verbale. In article 24, paragraph 2, the Convention enshrines the right of the victims of enforced disappearances to know the truth, while paragraph 3 of the same article spells out the corresponding obligations of the State. 13. Following on from the study, certain States have reaffirmed the autonomy of the right to the truth and its connections with other rights, including the right to information, the right to justice, the right to reparation and the right to an identity. They have also given particular attention to the purpose of the right to the truth, namely, to restore to the victims of manifest violations of human rights their dignity and to ensure that such misdeeds do not recur. 14. Beyond this international recognition, some States, like Colombia, have incorporated the right to the truth in their domestic legal system through legislative measures and through their jurisprudence.1 In several judgements, the Colombian Constitutional Court has developed jurisprudence recognizing the right of the victims of gross human rights violations to know the truth and has reaffirmed that this right is conducive to the eradication of impunity.2 It has 1 Act 600 of 2000, or the Code of Criminal Procedure; Act 906 of 2004, or the new Code of Criminal Procedure; and Act 975 of 2005, referred to as the Justice and Peace Act, and also through the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court. 2 Judgements T-249/03 of 20 January 2003; C-228/32 of 2 April 2002; C-580/02 of 2002; and C-458/06 of 2006, among others.

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents