Final Report: Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation

How the Commission was created: Supreme Decree No. 355 (Spanish), 24 April 1990, President Patricio Aylwin

Mandate of TRC: To document past human rights violations (individual cases and structural causes) and to propose measures or reparation and prevention   

Type of Human Rights Abuses Investigated: Covered killings and permanent disappearances

Period Investigated: 1973 to 1990

Geographic Area Investigated: Covered all regions

Legal powers of investigation: No subpoena and no judicial powers, but supportive evidence for courts

Access to state-military files and other sources of info: Full access according to mandate

Number & Nationality of commissioners: Eight all nationals

Budget: $4,500,000 USD

Perpetrators of the conflict: State armed forces and the secret service   

Number of victims: 4,000 victims

Number of cases presented to Commission: 3,428+ cases presented, 2,920 investigated, 2,279 vignettes included in report

Number of public hearings: None

Naming names: No

Reparations offered: Recognized the importance of reparations. Legislature enacted Law No. 19.123, published in the Official Daily on February 8, 1992 establishing the National Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation with a two-year mandate. People who took reparations felt them to be a source of shame, moral dilemmas tied to taking reparations, felt negative and frustrated about them. An institution separate from the TRC compensated survivors because it took longer to decide how to implement reparations than the commission' mandate. Families of those listed by the commission as killed, torture resulting in death, or disappeared (but not those tortured and alive) receive monthly checks for life.

Follow-up activities after Commission: Yes (National Corporation for Reparations and Reconciliation; referrals; correspondence and copy of reports for victims)

Compiled from:

Justice: The First Casualty of Truth. Brody, Reed. The Nation, 30 April 2001.

Las Comiciones de Verdad en America Latina. Cyua, Esteban. Derechos Human Rights, KO'AGA ROÑE'ETA, Series III.

Rights, Reparations and Reconciliation: Some Comparative Notes. Edelstein, Jayni. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Seminar No. 6, 1994.  

Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions. European Centre for Common Ground & Program on Negotiation, 2002. 

Truth Commissions: A Comparative Assessment. Interdisciplinary Discussion. Harvard Law School, 1996. 

Truth Commissions Digital Collection. Jeannette Rankin Library Program & The United States Institute for Peace, 23 April 2004.

Truth Commissions: An Uncertain Path? Cuevas Espinoza, Victor; Ortiz Rojas, Maria Luisa; & Rojas Baeza, Paz.Corporacion de Promocion y Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo & Association for the Prevention of Torture, 2002.

"Truth Commissions, Transitional Justice, and Civil Society." Crocker, David A.Forthcoming in Robert I. Rotberg and Dennis Thompson, eds. Truth v. Justice: The Moral Efficacy of Truth Commissions: South Africa and Beyond (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) 

Truth Commissions and Transitional Justice: A Short Guide. Bronkhorst, Daan. September 2003.