ABSTRACT
The place of victims in international criminal proceedings is a contested issue in international criminal law. While victims are often assigned a crucial role as contributors to the body of evidence, they also play an important role as an audience and provide the very raison d’être for international criminal trials. On the procedural level, difficulties with respect to a victim-centred search for truth are usually discussed with regard to the implementation of victim participation and representation and its expected and actual effects. The expression of the need to establish the truth for the benefit of the victims in cases of mass atrocity has become an undeniable part of the human rights and international criminal justice discourses and as such has entered the International Criminal Court (ICC) practice. The Rome Statute of the ICC does not include an explicit right to truth. However, several articles can be seen in the light of such a right.
