The Interplay Between National Truth Seeking and Criminal Justice Mechanisms

Truth-seeking and justice are essential components of transitional justice. The right to the truth exists independent of truth commissions or other similar investigative or inquiry bodies. The right to justice is the right to a fair and effective remedy or a victim's right to assert his rights and receive a fair and effective remedy, including seeing that his oppressor stands trial and obtaining reparations. The relationship between the rights to justice and truth-seeking is rife with controversies from theories to practices holding them either as reinforcing each other, sequential or mutually exclusive. Through a case study of the transitional justice mechanisms of Liberia(2005) and Kenya (2008), this paper scrutinizes the interplay between truth-seeking and justice.