Posted by svolk on 27th August 2009
Lisa Skeen
The announcement on June 25 that Spain will begin to limit its application of universal jurisdiction garnered no more than a humble blip in international media coverage. The principle, which asserts that certain crimes are so egregious that they are an affront to all humanity and therefore prosecutable by any nation, is at the center of fierce philosophical debate in international law. But for survivors of genocide in Guatemala, universal jurisdiction has represented something much more tangible—an important avenue for justice against the lingering impunity left in the wake Latin America’s dirty wars.
Spain’s lower house of Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of narrowing universal jurisdiction so that crimes committed outside of Spain may only be prosecuted if Spanish citizens are affected.
The six judges that make up Spain’s Audencia Nacional are currently handling thirteen diverse cases from all over the world, including several from Latin America. Spain has assured the human rights community that the change will not affect cases under investigation or those currently being tried.
Although the judges have been hailed by rights activists, their recent high-profile investigations into rights abuses by American, Israeli and Chinese government officials have created a diplomatic headache for Spain’s politicians, who pressed Parliament to pass the resolution.
While Washington has admitted to quietly pressuring the Spanish government to drop the investigations into allegations of U.S. torture at Guantanamo, Israel was outspoken in its criticism of the court’s decision to investigate a claim that Israeli forces had committed war crimes in Gaza in 2002. The investigation has since been dropped.
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Posted in: Argentina, Genocide, Guatemala, Justice, Rios Montt, Spain, Universal jurisdiction | No Comments »
Posted by svolk on 1st March 2009
GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) – Feb. 26, 2009 — President Alvaro Colom Wednesday formally apologized to the victims of the country’s 1960-1996 civil war, 10 years after a UN-sponsored report came out on the atrocities largely committed by the military.
“As president of the republic, head of government and commander in chief of the army I ask for your forgiveness, because the system was at fault,” Colom said at a ceremony on National Dignification Day commemorating the estimated 200,000 civil war victims.
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Posted in: Genocide, Guatemala, Human Rights | No Comments »
Posted by svolk on 18th October 2008
Reed Brody, New Statesman , Oct 16, 2008
On October 16, 1998, London police arrested General Pinochet on a warrant from a Spanish judge for human rights crimes. It was a wake up call to tyrants everywhere
In the ten years since, the world has become a smaller place for brutal despots. Indeed, today a former dictator accused of thousands of killings and “disappearances,” as Pinochet was, wouldn’t even think of a European vacation.
The arrest and the subsequent decisions by the British House of Lords to reject Pinochet’s claim of immunity were a wake-up call to tyrants everywhere, but more important, they gave hope to victims elsewhere that they too could bring their tormentors to justice.
In country after country, particularly in Latin America, victims were inspired to challenge the transitional arrangements of the 1980s and 1990s that had allowed the perpetrators of atrocities to go unpunished and, often, to remain in power. Thanks to these efforts, former leaders in Argentina, Peru and Uruguay face human rights trials.
Pinochet’s arrest also strengthened a nascent international movement – spurred by the killings in Bosnia and Rwanda, and facilitated by the end of the Cold War – to make certain the worst abuses are punished.
After the creation of UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the world established the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes when national courts are unable or unwilling to do so.
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Posted in: Chile, Genocide, Human Rights, International Criminal Court, Legal Justice, Pinochet | No Comments »
