Key research themes
1. How has the right to truth evolved as an autonomous human right within international human rights law and jurisprudence?
This research theme investigates the development and recognition of the right to truth as a distinct human right in international legal frameworks and adjudicatory bodies. It explores how international courts and commissions, particularly the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), articulate and operationalize this right, focusing on cases related to enforced disappearances, torture, and other severe human rights violations. The theme is significant because it clarifies the normative content and scope of the right to truth, establishes state obligations for investigation and transparency, and addresses both individual and collective dimensions of truth-seeking essential for transitional justice and accountability.
2. What is the role and impact of truth-seeking mechanisms, memory laws, and judicial practices in transitional justice contexts regarding the right to truth?
This theme focuses on the practical implementation of the right to truth through mechanisms such as truth commissions, judicial 'truth-finding trials', memory laws, and social mobilization in societies undergoing political transitions from conflict or authoritarian regimes. Research in this area explores challenges of guaranteeing the right to truth, including legal limitations, competing political agendas, the distortion or instrumentalization of historical narratives, and the balancing of truth, justice, and reconciliation. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for designing effective transitional justice policies that satisfy victims' and societies' demands for accountability and historical clarity.
3. How do forensic science, civic engagement, and discourse analysis contribute to the realization and contestation of the right to truth in contexts of enforced disappearances and mass violence?
This theme explores the interdisciplinary intersections among forensic methodologies, civic activism, and critical discourse approaches in uncovering truth and challenging official narratives in societies affected by enforced disappearances and mass atrocities. Emphasis is placed on how forensic civism facilitates families’ involvement in locating the disappeared, how discourse constructs and contests moral and ideological truths within policy and public realms, and how these dynamics impact the practical realization of the right to truth and societal reconciliation.