This collection contains pamphlets, articles, reports, flyers, posters, and other miscellaneous items addressing a variety of human rights issues in Peru, such as political violence, torture, political prisoners, displaced populations, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The material is produced by a range of sources, including national and international non-governmental organizations, state entities, religious organizations, and civic coalitions. The material was produced with a wide array of aims, including popular education, solidarity, political activism, and raising awareness.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Peru suffered a period of intense violence during which the war launched by the Maoist guerilla organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) was met with a violent response from state counter-insurgency forces. The armed conflict, which began in highland Ayacucho and spread throughout the nation, produced an estimated death toll of sixty thousand people, primarily peasants caught in the middle of the clash.

Following the collapse of President Alberto Fujimori's corrupt regime and the flight of head intelligence officer Vladimiro Montesinos in 2000, many institutions within Peruvian society heightened their demands that the state take responsibility for the national human rights record and make necessary reparations. This pressure led to the creation in 2001 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a state organism, which devoted nineteen months to investigating the violence that took place between 1980 and 2000. Information regarding the Commission's findings has been made available through public audiences, bulletins, and conferences. A final report was presented to the Peruvian government and to the general public on August 28, 2003.

It is worthwhile to note that while most Truth and Reconciliation Commission publications come from the main office in Lima, many were produced by regional offices of the Commission in other parts of the country.