Given that truth-seeking requires both considerable time and resources to properly tackle investigations and victims’ needs, local community and regional representatives, civil society organizations, NGOs and aid agencies, and governmental and judicial entities play different roles in this process.
Policy recommendations issued by commissions often lead to a call for national reforms and further transitional justice initiatives, such as reparations, vetting and prosecutions.
Unofficial or local truth-seeking projects became popular in the 1980s and 1990s in Latin America, when community organizations such as churches and academic institutions documented human rights violations and issued reports following the end to military rule.
Though unofficial, such efforts from civil society often serve to pave the way for or complement state- led transitional justice initiatives, and sometimes produce superior results, as in Guatemala.
Unofficial truth-seeking initiatives have also taken place more recently at the local level in Northern Ireland, the United States, South Korea, and elsewhere.