The legacy of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in eradicating the amnesty laws

Abstract

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) contributed to the crystallization of a solid international legal foundation through which the amnesties that were trying to stop the impunity of serious violations to the human rights were professed contradictious with the international law. IACHR´s legacy recreates in the existence of a conceptual corpus favourable to the human right protection apart from limiting internal rules in terms of rights and freedom. The architecture of this study derived from the IACHR´s work in its thirty-five years of operations is built around three axes. First, it arises the problematic between legality and legitimacy of the amnesties laws as consequence of the last two live cases, Brazil and Uruguay. Secondly, it reaffirms the primacy of international obligations of the States faced with the nature of crimes covered by the amnesty laws. Amnesty and others laws with exemption of responsibility try to leave in the impunity atrocious crimes and violations committed during armed conflicts or other situations of political turmoil. All these offenses are contrary to the international obligations of States. Thirdly, is approached how amnesty laws are incompatible with the international law of human rights. It conclude with some reflections about the immense work done by the IACHR in the eradication of the amnesty laws in the Americas, also in the extent in that its case law also has a first order didactic value to the defend of fundamental rights and freedoms.