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Appendix 3 - Selected Excerpts from Jurisprudence on Amnesties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Mark Freeman
Mark Freeman
Affiliation:
International Crisis Group, Brussels
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Summary

  1. Case of Almonacid-Arellano et al. v. Chile, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Judgment of September 26, 2006 (Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs), paras. 105–29.

  2. Prosecutor v. Allieu Kondewa (Decision on Lack of Jurisdiction/Abuses of Process: Amnesty Provided by the Lome Accord), Special Court for Sierra Leone, Appeals Chamber, Case No. SCSL-2004–14-AR72(E), May 25, 2004, paras. 30–57 (Separate Opinion of Justice Robertson).

  3. Azanian Peoples Organization (AZAPO) and Others v. President of the Republic of South Africa and Others, Constitutional Court of South Africa, Case No. CCT17/96 (July 25, 1996), Judgment of Mahomed DP.

1. Case of Almonacid-Arellano et al. v. Chile, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Judgment of September 26, 2006 (Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs), paras. 105–129

b) Impossibility to grant an amnesty for crimes against humanity

105. According to the International Law corpus iuris, a crime against humanity is in itself a serious violation of human rights and affects mankind as a whole. In the Case of Prosecutor v. Erdemovic, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia stated that:

Crimes against humanity are serious acts of violence which harm human beings by striking what is most essential to them: their life, liberty, physical welfare, health, and or dignity. They are inhumane acts that by their extent and gravity go beyond the limits tolerable to the international community, which must perforce demand their punishment. But crimes against humanity also transcend the individual because when the individual is assaulted, humanity comes under attack and is negated. It is therefore the concept of humanity as victim which essentially characterises crimes against humanity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Necessary Evils
Amnesties and the Search for Justice
 , pp. 196 - 248
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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References

Rowe, S. E., “Sierra Leone – The Search for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation”, in Canadian Council on International law (Ed.) Globalisation, People, Profit and Progress, (Kluwer, 2002), p. 46Google Scholar
Berlin's, Isaiah essay on “Two concepts of Liberty” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1969), at 170Google Scholar
Dugard, , International Law: A South African Perspective (Juta & Co Ltd, Kenwyn 1994) at 339–46Google Scholar
Frankel, Out of the Shadows of the Night: The Struggle for International Human Rights (Delacorte Press, New York 1989) at 103–4Google Scholar
Orentlicher, “Settling Accounts: The Duty To Prosecute Human Rights Violations of a Prior Regime,” 100 Yale LJ2537 (1991) at 2544CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“A reply to Professor Nino” 100 Yale LJ2641 (1991)CrossRef
Bernhardt, (ed) Encyclopedia of Public International Law, (North-Holland, Amsterdam, London, New York, Tokyo 1992) Vol. I at 148
Bernhardt, (ed) Encyclopedia of Public International Law, (North-Holland, Amsterdam, New York, Oxford 1982) Vol. 3
Vattel, The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law Applied to the Conduct and to the Affairs of Nations and of Sovereigns trans. by Fenwick, (Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington 1916) at 351Google Scholar

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