ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how both groups of anti-genocide activists produce, present and sanction evidence to gain public support for their moral truth claim and get politicians to act in a way they consider morally 'right'. In Ritual and religion in the making of humanity, Roy Rappaport distinguishes between two kinds of truth: empirical truth, or certum, and 'fabricated' or moral truth, or verum. Transnational advocacy constitutes an important 'technique' to proclaim truths in the human rights and humanitarian community. To obtain acknowledgement that humanitarian or human rights law has been violated, the evidence of an alleged violation has to be presented and sanctioned in such a way that the community accepts that claim as a moral truth. Consequently, East Timor activists and R2P-advocates have dedicated ample time to the gathering of evidence to prove that mass atrocities are occurring or imminent, and to the identification of political actors or actions that are detrimental to a situation.
