ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines various arguments and challenges associated with conceptualising the public aspect of the right to the truth as distinct from the individual aspect. The public aspect of the right to the truth has also been recognised in a judicial or quasi-judicial context. The Inter-American Court, which determines individual cases on the basis of the text of the American Convention of Human Rights, has moved towards recognising a public aspect to the right to the truth. In later cases, a public aspect to the right to the truth has been expressly accepted by the Court as part of the justification for the implicit duty to conduct an effective investigation. To focus the legal right solely and sufficiently on victims’ interests and leave the public aspect, the pursuit of peace, to the legislature and executive free of legal obligation, is to interfere with a major aspect of the right to the truth and inhibit its ability to advance peace.
