Roberta Bacic was born in Santiago de Chile in June 1949. Her parents, an Austrian Jew and a Yugoslavian Catholic, emigrated to Chile with her maternal grandmother after the Second World War.

Educated in a progressive and experimental environment, she grew up on socialist ideas and studied Marxism as part of the curriculum at university. She taught supervised language practise at school and Methodology for teachers and Philosophy at university in Santiago, beginning in 1972. She voted for Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government and was in Chile at the time of the military coup in 1973.

By 1978 it was clear that the situation in Chile was going to be a protracted and unhappy one, and it was at this point that Roberta began denouncing the regime. She openly demonstrated and denounced the military government, wrote reports and held workshops and seminars with relatives of people who had been 'disappeared' by the state and by going on speaking tours in the United States and Europe.

She was fired from her job at the university and was once arrested.

After Chile's slow return to civilian rule, Roberta became involved in the Rettig Commission, the successor to the formal Truth Commission, which sought to find answers for those left behind about the fate of their loved ones. Through her work she formed many close bonds with survivors and remains in touch with them today.

After many years as a member of the peace group War Resistors' International, Roberta took a job as a Programme and Development Worker. She now lives in Northern Ireland with her husband, and is still involved in human rights work as a guest speaker to many universities and organisations.

Her incredible story is told in the three documentaries which this website supports.