Overcoming Barriers to Justice in the Age of Human Rights Accountability

Abstract

Amnesty laws are viewed as a main barrier to justice for past human rights violations. Scholars and practitioners expected the age of human rights accountability to reduce the number or coverage of amnesty laws that block human rights trials. Based on analysis of an original database of amnesty laws and trials, this article questions that outcome. Few discernible patterns regarding amnesty laws and accountability emerge; human rights trials are nearly as likely in the absence of amnesty laws or where partial laws in compliance with international standards and noncompliant blanket amnesty laws exist. Most of the countries that have overcome the amnesty law barriers to justice are in Latin America. This article thus uses the region to identify a multidimensional approach to pathways to overcome impunity and promote justice for past human rights violations. It considers policy recommendations to strengthen four factors that have advanced accountability in the region: civil society demand, international pressure, judicial leadership, and the absence of veto players.

Judgements of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning indigenous and tribal land rights in Suriname: new approaches to stimulating full compliance

“…189 However, this international pressure may support civil society demand and judicial leadership necessary to overcome barriers to justice. 190 In order to increase accountability, several domestic actors have called for a truth and reconciliation process in Suriname. 191 The process can enable victims of human rights violations to re-gain confidence in the State apparatus after state-sponsored crimes.…”

The Difference Law Makes: Domestic Atrocity Laws and Human Rights Prosecutions

“…2 As depicted in Figure 1, a large majority (64.6 percent) occur following democratic transitions, like in Argentina, 3 while roughly one-third (32.3 percent) occur in post-civil 2 This database is compiled from U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practice and other secondary sources including Amnesty International Reports (see Supporting Information Online Appendix Section 1). The data have been used in a number of publications (Dancy & Michel 2016;Dancy & Sikkink 2011;Payne et al 2015), and are available at www.transitionaljusticedata.com. 3 A democratic transition is defined as a significant change from autocratic to democratic formal institutions.…”

“…Such laws are widespread. Data collected by Payne et al () identify a total of 63 amnesty laws in 34 transitional states. Often such laws are adopted as a concession to an outgoing regime to help facilitate a negotiated transition to a new regime.…”

“…The authors provide evidence that countries with amnesty laws are no less likely on average to complete human rights prosecutions. However, in many cases, amnesty laws prevented, or at least long‐delayed, attempted prosecutions (Payne et al ). For example, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court recently upheld the legality of the country's 1979 amnesty law, which was adopted as part of its transition to democracy, blocking accountability for widespread abuses committed under the former military government (Tang ).…”

“… This database is compiled from U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights Practice and other secondary sources including Amnesty International Reports (see Supporting Information Online Appendix Section 1). The data have been used in a number of publications (Dancy & Michel ; Dancy & Sikkink ; Payne et al ), and are available at http://www.transitionaljusticedata.com.…”