Dear visitors,

This Conference is an initiative with the purpose of critical reflection upon the Brazilian Amnesty Act (Lei nº 6.683/79) and its repercussion in the last three decades, focusing on the right to truth.

After 45 years of the coup d’état that instituted the military regime in the country, families of insurgents who died or went missing for political reasons keep wondering what really happened to their loved ones. Victims of crimes and atrocities committed by State agents, such as illegal prisons, kidnappings and torture, still seek justice and reparation.

In this context, society mobilizes to demand the achievement of the right to truth, with the opening of the archives related to the dictatorship and the disclosure of the facts that took place within this shady period of our History. After all, it is both the duty and the responsibility of the State to reveal the truth to its citizens, ensuring the non-repetition of the mass violations of rights institutionalized during the authoritarian government.  Democracy and the rule of law can only be achieved after the State deals with its past. Only through enlightenment of the facts we can promote true national reconstruction, as for the full exercise of people’s sovereignty it is necessary to have a society aware of its History. Reparation of victims, with the restoration of their moral dignity, and the construction of the collective memory, only can derive from knowledge of the truth.

Bearing this in mind, the Conference aims at discussing the possibility of creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Brazil, through the exchange of experiences with other countries of the Southern Cone. The main objective is to foster the debate of all forms of fulfilling and effectively implementing the right to truth.

The Center for the Studies of Violence (NEV) would like to invite researchers, professors, students, human rights activists and the general public to take part in this forum of discussion, which is going to take place on October 19th and 20th of 2009. In this website, you will be able to register for the event, as well as find other information on the Conference along with documents on the subject of the right to the truth.