International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.

March 24 of each year is marked as the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.

On this particular day, we honour those who have lost their lives fighting for human rights, particularly the right to truth. The right to the truth is often invoked in the context of gross violations of human rights and serious offenses of humanitarian law. The day is also known as Truth Day.  Truth Day was established in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly in memory of Salvadoran Roman Catholic Archbishop Romero who campaigned for human rights for many years and was assassinated at a church altar on 24 March 1980. His murderers were never brought to justice.

Truth seekers like Romero  are often punished, tortured, forcedly disappeared, or executed. There have been thousands of them in history, including Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Walter Rodney, Malcolm X, Emma Tenayuca, Steve Biko, Patrice Lumumba, Anne Frank and many others whose names did not pass through the history books.