Fact-finding in international human rights violations: identifying the fact

Abstract

Fact-finding in the field of international human rights violations constitutes a practice on behalf of numerous human rights actors with regards to establish the real facts that lie behind such alleged violations. Various international intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations have been active in that area. The main purpose of this study is to describe the fact-finding methods that are undertaken in the international level and view the development the fact-finding proceedings have acquired in time. In the research that follows, an enumeration of different fact-finding typologies is presented, as well as the functions assumed by the fact-finders in that direction. As it will be drawn from this study, fact-finding practices have evolved in the recent years; they can take a variety of forms and serve as a useful tool towards states’ compliance to the obligations they have undertaken in acceding in international human rights instruments. Since the protection of human rights is in the interest of the international community as a whole, identifying the occurred human rights violations is proved as the first step that needs to be taken on behalf of the international community to bring such crimes to an end.