Amnesties in the light of developments in international law and the establishment of the international criminal court

International and Comparative Law Quarterly

Volumn 51, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 91-117

  Gavron, Jessica ^a  

^a London Center   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84937386084     PISSN: 00205893     EISSN: 14716895     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/iclq/51.1.91     Document Type: Article

References (108)

1. See Fania Domb ‘Treatment of War Crimes in Peace Settlements-Prosecution or Amnesty?’, in Dinstein and Tabory (eds), War Crimes In International Law (1996), 305 at 308
2. Treaty of Peace with Germany (Treaty of Versailles), signed at Versailles, 28 June 1919 Martens Nouveau Recueil (3d) 323.
3. Domb above at 308–9
4. Italian Peace Treaty, 1947 (Israel edn) 4 Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967 (1967) 2421
5. Bulgarian Peace Treaty 1947 Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967, 2525
6. Hungarian Peace Treaty 1947 Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967, 2553
7. Romanian Peace Treaty 1947 Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967, 2585
8. Finnish Peace Treaty 1947, Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967, 2615.
9. Orentlicher ‘Settling Accounts: the Duty to Prosecute Human Rights Violations of a Previous Regime’, in 100 Yale Law Journal (1991) 2539
10. Domb above n 1
11. Roht-Arriaza ‘State Responsibility to Investigate and Punish Human Rights Violations in International Law’ in 78 California Law Review (1990) 449
12. Scharf ‘The Letter of the Law: The Scope of the International Legal Obligation to Prosecute Human Rights Crime’ in 59 Law and Contemporary Problems (1996) 41.
13. See Cassese ‘On the Current Trends towards Criminal Prosecution and Punishment of Breaches of International Humanitarian Law’ in 9 EJIL (1998) at 5
14. and Bassiouni ‘International Crimes: Jus Cogens and Obligatio Erga Omnes’ in 59 Law and Contemporary Problems (1996) 63.
15. Art 49 of the First Geneva Convention, 75 UNTS 31, 62
16. Art 50 of the Second Geneva Convention UNTS, 85, 116
17. Art 129 of the Third Geneva Convention, UNTS, 135, 236
18. Art 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention UNTS, 287, 386. Also Art 85(1) of 1977 Additional Protocol I.
19. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948, Arts V and VI, 78 UNTS 277.
20. The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, 1973, Arts IV & V.
21. Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, 1984 24 ILM 535 (1984).
22. Adopted 16 Dec 1966, 999 UNTS 171 (entered into force 23 Mar 1976).
23. Adopted 4 Nov 1950, 213 UNTS 221, Europ TS No 5 (entered into force 3 Sept 1953).
24. Adopted 7 Jan 1970, 9 ILM 673 (1970).
25. Velasquez Rodriguez Case, Inter-Am. Ct HR (ser C) No 4 at paras 166 and 174 (1988) Judgment.
26. Buergenthal, ‘The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador’ 27 Vanderbilt J Trans Law 497, 536.
27. E. Leopold, ‘UN Chief Signals Disapproval of Salvadorean Amnesty Reuters’ 24 Mar 1993, in Cassel Lessons From the Americas: Guidelines for International Response to Amnesties for Atrocities in 59 Law and Contemporary Problems (1996) 197 at 225.
28. Declaracion Publica del Director de MINUGUA, 20 Dec 1996, para 5, Law and Contemporary Problems, at 223.
29. 1985/6 Annual Report, 191–3 (1986).
30. 1985/6 Annual Report, at 192.
31. 1985/6 Annual Report, at 192–3.
32. 1985/6 Annual Report, at para 166.
33. 1985/6 Annual Report, at 193.
34. See above n 13. 1985/6 Annual Report, at para 176.
35. 1985/6 Annual Report, at para 184.
36. Alicia Consuela Herrera et al Case No 10.147 Ann Rep Inter-Am Comm H Rts. 1992–1993
37. Las Hojas Massacre Case No 10.287, Ann Rep Inter-Am Comm H Rts., at 83.
38. Hugo Leonardo de los Santos Mendoza et al Case No 10.029, Ann Rep Inter-Am Comm H Rts., at 154.
39. See generally Pion-Berlin ‘To Prosecute or Pardon? Human Rights Decisions in the Latin American Southern Cone’ 16 HRQ 105
40. Nino ‘The Duty to Punish Past Abuses of Human Rights Put Into Context: The Case of Argentina’ 100 Yale Law Journal 2619.
41. Comision Nacional Sobre La Desparicion de Personas, Nunca Mas (1984)
42. The ‘Full Stop Law’ Law 23,492, 4 Dec 1986
43. Law 23,521, 4 June 1987
44. Presidential Decree of Pardon No. 1002, 7 Oct 1989.
45. See Buergenthal above n 16; Ensalaco ‘Truth Commissions for Chile and El Salvador: A Report and Assessment’ 16 HRQ (1994) 656.
46. Pion-Berlin above n 30.
47. Law No 15,848, Ley de Caducidad de la Pretension Punitiva del Estado, 22 Dec 1986.
48. Pion-Berlin above n 30 at 122.
49. Ley de Caducidad de la Pretension Punitiva del Estado, at 118, n 36
50. (Weschler ‘A Reporter at Large’ New Yorker, 65 (10 Apr 1989): 93).
51. New Yorker, at 121.
52. Hugo Leonardo above n 29 at para 22.
53. Examples include: Muteba v Zaire (re torture) Comm No 124/1982, 39 UN GAOR Supp. (No 40) Annex XIII, UN Doc A/39/40 (1984)
54. Elena Quinteros v Uruguay (re disappearances) Comm No 107/1981, 38 UN GAOR Supp (No. 40) Annex XXII UN Doc A/38/40 (1983).
55. HRC Gen Comm 20, Art 7 (44 sess 1992), UN Doc HRI\GEN\1\Rev 1 at 30 (1994).
56. See S.E. v Argentina GAOR 45th Sess, Supp 40 (A/45/40) Annex XJ Comm No 275/1988 (1990)
57. H.C.M.A. v Netherlands, GAOR 44th Sess Supp 40 (A/44/40) Annex X1B Comm No 213/1986 (1989).
58. Hugo Rodriguez v Uruguay, Comm No 322/1988 Views of 19 July 1994, UNDoc CCPR/C/51/D/322/1988 (1994).
59. Comm No 322/1988, at para 14.
60. Comm No 322/1988 at para 12.4.
61. Protocol Additional II to the Geneva Conventions of 12 Aug 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflict, 8 June 1977, 1125 UNTS 609.
62. Plattner, ‘The Penal Repression of Violations of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Non-International Armed Conflicts’, 30 Int'l Rev Red Cross (1990) 409, 414.
63. ‘According to International Humanitarian Law as it stands today, the notion of war crimes is limited to situations of international armed conflict.’ unpublished comments (25 Mar 1993) see Meron, ‘The Criminalization of Internal Atrocities’, 89 AJIL 554, 559.
64. Hafner, Boon, Rubesame, and Huston, ‘A Response to the American View [re the ICC] as presented by Ruth Wedgewood’ in 10 EJIL 108 (1999) at 111.
65. As did the UN War Crimes Commission in its Interim Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992), UN Doc S/25274, Ann 1, para 45 (1993)
66. Prosecutor v Dusko Tadic (Jurisdiction) ILR 105 (1997), 419, para 77.
67. See generally Greenwood ‘International Humanitarian Law and the Tadic Case’ 7 EJIL (1996) 265
68. id, ‘The Development of International Humanitarian Law by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’ (1998) 2 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law 97
69. Meron, ‘War Crimes in Yugoslavia and the Development of International Law’, 88 AJIL 76.
70. Report of the UN Secretary-General, UN Doc S/1995/134, para 12 (1995).
71. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, UN Doc A/CONF 183/9 (17 July 1998).
72. Kirsch and Holmes, ‘The Rome Conference on an International Criminal Court: The Negotiating Process’, 93 AJIL (1999) 2 at 7.
73. Also Arasanjani ‘The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court’, AJIL, at 32.
74. The International Law Commission removed the distinction in Art 22 of its Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind 1991. Report of the ILC, 43rd Sess, 46 UN GAOR, Supp No 10 at 270, UN Doc A/46/10 (1991).
75. For a critique of the definition of crimes in the ICC Statute see Cassese ‘The Statute of the International Criminal Court: Some Preliminary Reflections’, 10 EJIL (1999) 144 at 150 et seq.
76. Also Bassiouni ‘Negotiating the treaty of Rome on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court’; 32 Cornell Int'l Law Journal (1999) 443 at 462 et seq.
77. Philippe Kirsch chaired the Committee of the Rome Conference. Keynote Address, Cornell Int'l Law Journal, Cornell Int'l LJ at 437.
78. Exert in Bassiouni above n 77 at 468.
79. UN Doc A/53/1 Annual Report of the Sec-Gen on the Work of the Organisation 1998, 27 Aug 1998, para 180.
80. See UN Doc A/47/975-S/26063 (1993), Report of the Secretary-General on Haiti, reproducing the Governors Island Agreement, July 1993.
81. UN SCOR, 48th Sess, 3298th mtg at 126, UN Doc S/INF/49 (1993).
82. White House Press Briefing on Haiti (19 Sept 1994) US Newswire, 19 Sept 1994.
83. See Scharf ‘Swapping Amnesty for Peace: Was There a Duty to Prosecute International Crimes in Haiti?’ 31 Texas Int'l LJ (1996) 1, 7.
84. See generally: Scharf, Texas Int'l LJ
85. Roth ‘Human Rights in the Haitian Transition to Democracy’ in Hesse and Post (eds), Human Rights in Political Transitions: Gettysburg to Bosnia (Zone Books, 1999), 93.
86. See Scharf above n 83 at 15–16. Loi Relative a L'Amnistie, published in Le Moniteur, Journal Officiel de la Republique d'Haiti, 10 Oct 1994 (Haiti).
87. Secretary of State Geoff Hoon on BBC news broadcasts 17 May 2000.
88. Holmes, ‘The Principle of Complementarity in Lee’ (ed), The International Criminal Court: The Making of the Rome Statute (Kluwer International, 1999), 60.
89. Art 13, Rome Statute.
90. Scharf, ‘The Amnesty Exception to the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court’, 32 Cornell Int'l LJ (1999) 507 at 522.
91. UN Doc E/CN 4/Sub 2/1996/18, 20 June 1996 at Principle 19.
92. See generally Pion-Berlin above n 30
93. Ensalaco above n 33.
94. Amnesty Decree Law 2.191.
95. Hermosilla et al Inter-Am Comm. H Rts Report No 36/96 Case 10.843 Chile 15 Oct 1996.
96. R v Bow St Magistrates, Ex Parte Pinochet Uguarte (No 1) 1998
97. All ER (No 3) 1999
98. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200 of 1993.
99. The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act 34 of 1995.
100. The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, s 20.
101. The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, s 20(7).
102. Braude and Spitz ‘Memory and the Spectre of International Justice: A Comment on Azapo’ in 13 South African J on HR (1997) 269, 273.
103. ‘Justice or Reconciliation’ The University of Chicago Law School, Center for International Studies Conference, 26 Apr 1997.
104. Azanian Peoples Organisation v President of the Republic of South Africa 1996 (4) SA 671 (CC).
105. Above n 122, Mahmood DP, at para 21.
106. ‘What About Justice?’ Inaugural Bar Human Rights Committee Lecture at St Paul's Cathedral, 1 Nov 1999. Transcripts available from the BHRC.
107. eg, UNGA Res/36/13 28 Oct 1981 and A/Res/37/47 3 Dec 1982.
108. eg, UNGA Res/48/159 20 Dec 1993.