ABSTRACT
In addition to the difficulties confronted on the inside of a commission,any truth inquiry will also of course be greatly affected by outside factors — the involvement and information provided by nongovernmental organizations, the level of access that the commission gains to written records of the government or armed forces (or of foreign governments), the willingness of former perpetrators to cooperate with the inquiry, and the possible threat of violence or other forms of intimidation that the commission may confront during the course of its work. The success of past truth commissions has been greatly shaped by these factors, even while recognizing that these outside elements cannot be controlled or determined by the commission itself — although there are a number of things a commission can do to improve the chances that these various actors or factors might work in their favor.
