Truth, Justice and Memory for Dictatorship-era Human Rights Violations, 40 Years After the Military Coup

Abstract

This paper is the translation of an annual Human Rights Report chapter written for the Human Rights Centre of the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago de Chile. It examines the transitional justice situation in Chile, under the headings of truth, justice and memory, on the 40th anniversary of the coup that deposed socialist president Salvador Allende and brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power. Placing developments in 2012-2013 in the context of 23 years of transition, and measuring them against the yardstick of existing national and regional human rights norms and duties, the paper concludes that despite recent advances there is still some way to go before Chile can claim to have fully come to terms with its past authoritarian period. Particularly, it shows how tensions around the commemoration of the recent significant anniversary exposed continuing faultlines over social and official repudiation of authoritarian politics and the legacy of the Pinochet years.

Keywords: Transitional Justice, Truth, Justice, Memory, Chile