24-March International Day For the Right to Truth:
Background of the Day:
On 21 December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 March as the International Day for the Right to the Truth regarding Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.
The date was selected because on 24 March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador became assassinated, after denouncing violations of human rights.
In a study conducted in 2006, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that the right to the fact about gross human rights violations and severe violations of human rights regulation is an inalienable and self-sustaining right. Related to the responsibility and duty of the State to shield and assure human rights, to conduct effective investigations and to guarantee powerful remedy and reparations.
The Right to Truth:
Right to the truth is often invoked in gross violations of human rights and grave breaches of humanitarian law. The relatives of victims of summary executions, enforced disappearance, missing persons, abducted children, torture, require knowing what happened to them. Right to the truth implies knowing the complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances, and who took part in them, including knowing the circumstances. In which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them.
-UN Secretary-General António Guterres
