Peruvian Truth Commission

In December 2000, the caretaker government of Valentin Paniagua approved the establishment of a truth commission to investigate human rights violations committed in Peru between 1980 and 2000. The commission was inaugurated on July 13, 2001 and began its work after President-elect Alejandro Toledo took office later that month. Salomon Lerner Fresnes, philosopher and dean of the Catholic University in the capital city of Lima, heads the commission. In early September 2001, upon the request of the Catholic Church, the commission was renamed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and its membership was expanded from six to twelve. The original commission members are legislator Beatriz Alva Hart, sociologist Carlos Ivan Degregori, former legislators Enrique Bernales and Carlos Tapia, priest Gaston Garatea and former dean of the University of Ayacucho Alberto Morote Sanchez.

The Truth Commission granted Skylight Pictures access to its extensive testimonial evidence from 20 years of violence, as well as hundreds of hours of rarely seen archival material and thousands of exquisite still photographs that will help bring this timely story to an international audience.

The Commission presented its final report in Spanish on August 28, 2003. (english translation)

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Human rights

Links

 * "The Search for Truth: The Declassified Record on Human Rights Abuses in Peru", National Security Archive, August 28, 2003.
 * "Peru Confronts a Violent Past: The Truth Commission Hearings in Ayacucho", Human Rights Watch, accessed January 2008.
 * at Washington Office on Latin America
 * "Peru Truth Commission Says 69,000 Killed or Disappeared", Human & Constitutional Rights, October 27, 2003.