Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Totalitarian Regime was created on March 11th, 1996. Its predecessor, Commission for the Investigation of Totalitarian Regime Crimes had been functioning since march 31st, 1992. It was responsible for the prosecution of the totalitarian crimes as well as for the process of rehabilitation of the politically repressed people. The Commission for the Assessment of the Crimes of the Totalitarian Regime is responsible for supervising and monitoring the legitimate execution of the act of granting the status of the politically repressed and harmed by the Nazi and Communist regimes. Its other role is to supervise the execution of the act on the status of the resistance movement member. In both cases the Commission grants appropriate decisions about the status of politically repressed people and members of the national resistance movement.

The Commission also deals with searching for people whose fate as a result of the repression, has been unknown, researching criminal cases conducted by the security organs and disclosing information on them, informing the public about the appropriate acts applied by the Republic of Latvia, participating in legal matters concerning deciding about the statuses, assisting people whose human rights were limited in Latvia for various reasons, organizing discussions, meetings and lectures. 

The Institute of National Remembrance initiated co-operation with the Latvian Commission in 2001.