"The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons: Contributions to Transitional Justice"

CRENZEL, EMILIO ARIEL

The International Journal of Transitional Justice

Oxford University Press

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2008 vol. 2 p. 173 - 191

1752-7716

The National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons: Contributions to Transitional Justice Emilio Crenzel* Abstract[1] This article examines the contributions to transitional justice policies made by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) in Argentina. This Commission was created in December 1983 by then constitutional president, Raúl Alfonsín, to investigate the fate of the disappeared. In particular, the article analyzes how CONADEP’s inquiry simultaneously served the functions of creating a new public truth about the crimes - which were based on secrecy, the destruction of evidence and  concealment by the state - and of collecting essential legal evidence necessary to the prosecution of perpetrators. Finally, it explains the success of the inquiry, which was a result of the combined efforts of Alfonsín’s democratic administration and of the majority of Argentina’s human rights movement. Keywords: Argentina, disappearance, CONADEP, truth, justice * Professor at the University of Buenos Aires and researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) in Argentina. E-mail: ecrenzel@mail.retina.ar [1] This article is based on research I conducted for my PhD dissertation on the history of the Nunca Más report, supervised by Dr. José Nun and submitted in 2006 at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I would like to thank Carlos Acuña, Elizabeth Jelin and Waldo Ansaldi, members of the PhD dissertation board, for their comments. I also and especially thank Kathryn Sikkink, Professor at the University of Minnesota, for reading this article and contributing her suggestions.