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Abstract
This thesis asks the question: What is the nature of the violation that a denial of the truth about disappeared and missing persons constitutes and how has international law responded to it? The thesis describes this nature in psychological and sociological terms and critically examines the extent to which international treaty law and case law captures it. Though existing treaty provisions embody elements of the right to know the truth, they fail to detail the nature and scope of this right, clarify its different dimensions and provide for measures of protection to address the harms that the families of the disappeared and missing have experienced. Furthermore, while jurisprudence gives effect to the right to know the truth in spite of the absence of an explicit guarantee, the less than full recognition of this right has led to a lack of uniformity in the case law and has given an exceedingly wide discretion to the courts and tribunals to give effect to the right, or not to do so. The limitations in international law explain the need for the explicit guarantee of the right to know the truth in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Despite the advance in international human rights law that this Convention represents and the potential role of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance in the promotion of the right to know the truth through its monitoring procedures, it is imperative for the law to continue to capture more fully the experiences of the families of the disappeared and missing.