ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the debates about holding perpetrators of massive human rights violations accountable. It also focuses on the experience, in Latin America and elsewhere, of attempts to restore truth and justice to the legacy of abuse remaining from the past. However, the broad range of contexts in which accountability problems occur suggests that accountability for past abuses must be considered not only in transitions to democracy, but in seeking solutions to armed conflicts as well. The chapter shows that democratic leaders should strive to restore truth to the analysis of the recent past and, in general, forego attempts to restore justice, at least by way of criminal prosecutions. The accountability problem has legal, ethical, and political dimensions, and it is imperative to recognize and tackle all three. The multiplicity of dimensions has changed the way human rights organizations conceive their work and how they work to promote and defend fundamental freedoms.
