Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission: About the Commission

Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created to investigate what happened during the years 1980 to 2000 when Peru endured an internal conflict between government and opposing forces that left as many as 60,000 people dead or disappeared. In the Supreme Decree number 065-2001-PCM, the state declared these objectives for the TRC:

• determine the causes of the violence in Peru between May 1980 and November 2000;
• contribute to the investigation of the crimes and human rights violations perpetrated during that period;
• identify, when possible, the perpetrators responsible for these violent acts;
• elaborate proposals to make reparations to the victims and their families;
recommend the implementation of reforms as preventive measures;
• establish follow-up mechanisms for these recommendations.

Collection of Testimonies: Special teams from five regional offices visited 530 districts in 137 provinces in Peru, and collected a total of 17,000 testimonies—over 40 percent more than expected-from those affected by the violence.

Public Hearings: Over 9,800 people participated in public hearings as a part of the process of acknowledgement, healing, and social reparation. The hearings included 431 testimonies, referring to 318 cases of human rights violations.

Citizens' Meetings: The TRC also held 15 public meetings to give civil society an opportunity to reflect on its experience of the violence, as well as to help create a balanced perspective of truth, justice, and reconciliation.

Regional Histories: These historical accounts focused on the seven regions of the country most affected by the violence, seeking to reconstruct and rewrite the regions' histories by including the victims' stories and the causes of their suffering. Nineteen in-depth studies took the regional histories a step further, focusing on themes that pulled together the strands of the internal conflict.

Initiative on the Disappeared: The TRC organized a campaign called Para que no te olvides (So you don't forget) to help locate persons who were disappeared, to raise public awareness of the issue, and to generate a feeling of social solidarity with the victims and their families. A list of disappeared persons was updated regularly with new details and cases.

Analysis of Human Rights Violations: A judicial team studied the specific crimes and human rights violations during the period under investigation, examining the evidence against the perpetrators of the violence.

Responsibilities and Exhumations: An ad hoc working group evaluated cases in which individual responsibilities could be determined and could lead to penal sanctions. The TRC carried out three exhumations and prepared a national plan to specify places where other exhumations should be conducted.

Final Report and the Public Acts Group: The TRC presented its final report in August 2003. The Public Acts Group publicized the work of the TRC and built bridges with Peru's political and social actors. Activities included meetings with direct political actors of the conflict, the organization of an international conference on TRC's findings, institutional sessions entitled "Balances and Perspectives" for political parties to voice their opinions, and meetings with U.S. political leaders in New York and Washington, D.C.

Reparations: The TRC made proposals for reparations ranging from the symbolic to the financial to compensate victims and their families for human rights violations, social and material damages, and other losses suffered as a result of the violence.

Institutional Reforms: The TRC also made a series of recommendations on institutional reforms in the areas of the armed forces and the police, the penitentiary system, citizen participation and political parties, decentralization, education, and health.

Reconciliation: The process of reconciliation was a fundamental theme of the commission's work. The TRC hopes to achieve a new social pact or political agreement that rejects violence and helps create a climate of tolerance and respect in Peru.