TRUTH COMMISSIONS: From International Experience to the Peruvian Commission

The idea of creating a truth commission is not unique to Peru. Many countries that have gone through periods of internal conflict created truth commissions at the time of their transition in order to try to address the recovery of historical memory, of a certain truth about facts often manipulated by the authority in power, to confront the question of justice (is the new regime responsible for the crimes committed by the previous one? is the judicial system in place capable of achieving this objective of justice?) and to achieve national reconciliation. The anti-subversive policy applied by the Peruvian State, as well as the political violence developed by Sendero Luminoso and the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA), led, from the beginning of the 1980s, to a culture of human rights violations and impunity that still marks the country today. The Peruvian Truth Commission will be the 23rd truth commission worldwide and new commissions are being formed around the world, as is the case in Sierra Leone, Timor, or the former Yugoslavia. However, it seems interesting to us, first, before examining the Peruvian Truth Commission in greater depth, to review the different experiences of particular interest to the Peruvian case.