Information about Amnesty Law
An amnesty law is any law that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for crimes committed.[1]
Most allegations involve human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.
Amnesty laws are often also equally problematic to opposing side as cost-benefit problem: Is bringing the old leadership to justice worth extending the conflict or rule of previous regime with accompanying increase in suffering and casualties as old regime refuses to let go of power?
Victims, their families and human rights organisations – e.g., Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Humanitarian Law Project - have opposed such laws through demonstrations and litigation, their argument being that an amnesty law violates local constitutional law and international law by upholding impunity.
Even though suspects are no longer subject to judicial review under local law their amnesty does not invalidate international law. With that in mind he International Criminal Court was established to ensure perpetrators do not evade command responsibility for their crimes should the local government fail to prosecute.
Afghanistan has adopted a law precluding prosecution for war crimes committed in conflicts in previous decades.[2]
A decree by the President in 2006 makes prosecution impossible for human rights abuses, and even muzzle open debate by criminalizing public discussion about the nation's decade-long conflict.[3]
The National Commission for Forced Disappearances (CONADEP), led by writer Ernesto Sabato, was created in 1983. Two years later, the Juicio a las Juntas (Trial of the Juntas) largely succeeded in proving the crimes of the various juntas which had formed the self-styled National Reorganization Process. Most of the top officers who were tried were sentenced to life imprisonment: Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Eduardo Massera, Roberto Eduardo Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Raúl Agosti, Rubén Graffigna, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo. However, Raúl Alfonsín's government voted two amnesty laws in order to avoid the escalation of trials against militaries involved in human rights abuses: the 1986 Ley de Punto Final and the 1987 Ley de Obediencia Debida. President Carlos Menem then pardoned the leaders of the junta and the surviving commanders of the armed leftist guerrilla organizations in 1989–1990. Following persistent activism by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other associations, the amnesty laws were overturned by the Argentine Supreme Court nearly twenty years later, in June 2005. However, the ruling wasn't applied to the guerrilla leaders, who remained at large.
When Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London as part of a failed extradition to Spain, which was demanded by magistrate Baltasar Garzón, a bit more information concerning Condor was revealed. One of the lawyers who asked for his extradition talked about an attempt to assassinate Carlos Altamirano, leader of the Chilean Socialist Party: Pinochet would have met Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie in Madrid in 1975, during Franco's funeral, in order to have him murdered.[4] But as with Bernardo Leighton, who was shot in Rome in 1975 after a meeting the same year in Madrid between Stefano Delle Chiaie, former CIA agent Michael Townley and anti-Castrist Virgilio Paz Romero, the plan ultimately failed.
Chilean judge Juan Guzmán Tapia would eventually make jurisprudence concerning "permanent kidnapping" crime: since the bodies of the victims could not be found, he deemed that the kidnapping may be said to continue, therefore refusing to grant to the military the benefices of the statute of limitation. This helped indict Chilean militaries who were benefitting from a 1978 self-amnesty decree.
In November 2005 an amnesty law was adopted regarding offences committed between August 1996 and June 2003.[5]
Following the twelve year long civil war an amnesty law was passed in 1993.[6]
An amnesty law for crimes perpetrated before March 28, 1991, was enacted in 1991[7] after which the militias (with the important exception of Hezbollah) were dissolved, and the Lebanese Armed Forces began to slowly rebuild themselves as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian institution.
On 14 June 1995 President Alberto Fujimori signed a bill granting amnesty for any human rights abuses or other criminal acts committed from May 1982 to 14 June 1995 that was part of the counterinsurgency war by military, police, and civilians.[8]
On 7 July 1999, the "Lomé Peace Agreement" was signed. Along with a cease-fire agreement between the government of Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) it contained proposals to "expunge responsibility for all offences including international crimes, otherwise known as delict jus gentium such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, torture and other serious violations of international humanitarian law."[10]
Following the end of apartheid South Africa decided not to prosecute but instead created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Its aim was to investigate and elucidate the crimes committed during the apartheid regime while not indicting in an attempt to make the alleged perpetrators more compliant to cooperate.
During the War on Terror the Bush administrtion enacted the Military Commissions Act (MCA) in an attempt to regulate the legal procedures involving detainees called illegal combatant. Part of the act was an amendment which retroactively rewrote the War Crimes Act effectively making policy makers, i.e. politicians and military leaders, and those applying policy, i.e. CIA interogators and soldiers, no longer subject to legal prosecution under US law for what before the amendment was defined as a war crime.[11] Because of that critics describe the MCA as an amnesty law for crimes committed in the War on Terror.[12][13]
Most allegations involve human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.
History
Many countries have been plagued by revolutions, coups and civil war. After such turmoil the leaders of the outgoing regime that want, or are forced, to restore democracy in their country are confronted with possible litigation regarding the "counterinsurgency" actions taken during their reign. It is not uncommon there are allegations of human rights abuse and crimes against humanity. To overcome the dilemma of facing prosecution many countries have absolved those involved for their alleged crimes.Amnesty laws are often also equally problematic to opposing side as cost-benefit problem: Is bringing the old leadership to justice worth extending the conflict or rule of previous regime with accompanying increase in suffering and casualties as old regime refuses to let go of power?
Victims, their families and human rights organisations – e.g., Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Humanitarian Law Project - have opposed such laws through demonstrations and litigation, their argument being that an amnesty law violates local constitutional law and international law by upholding impunity.
Even though suspects are no longer subject to judicial review under local law their amnesty does not invalidate international law. With that in mind he International Criminal Court was established to ensure perpetrators do not evade command responsibility for their crimes should the local government fail to prosecute.
Countries with amnesty laws
Afghanistan
Afghanistan has adopted a law precluding prosecution for war crimes committed in conflicts in previous decades.[2]
Algeria
A decree by the President in 2006 makes prosecution impossible for human rights abuses, and even muzzle open debate by criminalizing public discussion about the nation's decade-long conflict.[3]
Argentina
- Further information: Ley de Punto Final, Ley de Obediencia Debida, Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, Dirty War, Operation Condor, National Commission for Forced Disappearances, History of Argentina
The National Commission for Forced Disappearances (CONADEP), led by writer Ernesto Sabato, was created in 1983. Two years later, the Juicio a las Juntas (Trial of the Juntas) largely succeeded in proving the crimes of the various juntas which had formed the self-styled National Reorganization Process. Most of the top officers who were tried were sentenced to life imprisonment: Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Eduardo Massera, Roberto Eduardo Viola, Armando Lambruschini, Raúl Agosti, Rubén Graffigna, Leopoldo Galtieri, Jorge Anaya and Basilio Lami Dozo. However, Raúl Alfonsín's government voted two amnesty laws in order to avoid the escalation of trials against militaries involved in human rights abuses: the 1986 Ley de Punto Final and the 1987 Ley de Obediencia Debida. President Carlos Menem then pardoned the leaders of the junta and the surviving commanders of the armed leftist guerrilla organizations in 1989–1990. Following persistent activism by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and other associations, the amnesty laws were overturned by the Argentine Supreme Court nearly twenty years later, in June 2005. However, the ruling wasn't applied to the guerrilla leaders, who remained at large.
Brazil
Chile
When Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London as part of a failed extradition to Spain, which was demanded by magistrate Baltasar Garzón, a bit more information concerning Condor was revealed. One of the lawyers who asked for his extradition talked about an attempt to assassinate Carlos Altamirano, leader of the Chilean Socialist Party: Pinochet would have met Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie in Madrid in 1975, during Franco's funeral, in order to have him murdered.[4] But as with Bernardo Leighton, who was shot in Rome in 1975 after a meeting the same year in Madrid between Stefano Delle Chiaie, former CIA agent Michael Townley and anti-Castrist Virgilio Paz Romero, the plan ultimately failed.
Chilean judge Juan Guzmán Tapia would eventually make jurisprudence concerning "permanent kidnapping" crime: since the bodies of the victims could not be found, he deemed that the kidnapping may be said to continue, therefore refusing to grant to the military the benefices of the statute of limitation. This helped indict Chilean militaries who were benefitting from a 1978 self-amnesty decree.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
In November 2005 an amnesty law was adopted regarding offences committed between August 1996 and June 2003.[5]
El Salvador
Following the twelve year long civil war an amnesty law was passed in 1993.[6]
Lebanon
An amnesty law for crimes perpetrated before March 28, 1991, was enacted in 1991[7] after which the militias (with the important exception of Hezbollah) were dissolved, and the Lebanese Armed Forces began to slowly rebuild themselves as Lebanon's only major non-sectarian institution.
Paraguay
Perú
On 14 June 1995 President Alberto Fujimori signed a bill granting amnesty for any human rights abuses or other criminal acts committed from May 1982 to 14 June 1995 that was part of the counterinsurgency war by military, police, and civilians.[8]
Senegal
A bill absolved anyone convicted for committing political crimes. Among them those who were convicted of having assassinated a constitutional court judge in 1993.[9]Sierra Leone
On 7 July 1999, the "Lomé Peace Agreement" was signed. Along with a cease-fire agreement between the government of Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) it contained proposals to "expunge responsibility for all offences including international crimes, otherwise known as delict jus gentium such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, torture and other serious violations of international humanitarian law."[10]
South Africa
Following the end of apartheid South Africa decided not to prosecute but instead created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Its aim was to investigate and elucidate the crimes committed during the apartheid regime while not indicting in an attempt to make the alleged perpetrators more compliant to cooperate.
The United States
During the War on Terror the Bush administrtion enacted the Military Commissions Act (MCA) in an attempt to regulate the legal procedures involving detainees called illegal combatant. Part of the act was an amendment which retroactively rewrote the War Crimes Act effectively making policy makers, i.e. politicians and military leaders, and those applying policy, i.e. CIA interogators and soldiers, no longer subject to legal prosecution under US law for what before the amendment was defined as a war crime.[11] Because of that critics describe the MCA as an amnesty law for crimes committed in the War on Terror.[12][13]
See also
- Command responsibility
- Crime against humanity
- Criminal law
- International humanitarian law
- International Law
- Universal jurisdiction
- War crimes
References
1. ^ Amnesty By William Bourdon, Crimes of War Project, The Book
2. ^ AFGHANISTAN: AMNESTY LAW DRAWS CRITICISM, PRAISE by Ron Synovitz, EurasiaNet, 3/17/07
3. ^ Algeria
2. ^ AFGHANISTAN: AMNESTY LAW DRAWS CRITICISM, PRAISE by Ron Synovitz, EurasiaNet, 3/17/07
3. ^ Algeria
- Algeria: New Amnesty Law Will Ensure Atrocities Go Unpunished The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), March 1, 2006
- Algeria : New Amnesty Law Will Ensure Atrocities Go Unpunished - Muzzles Discussion of Civil Conflict Algeria-Watch
4. ^ Las Relaciones Secretas entre Pinochet, Franco y la P2] - Conspiracion para matar], Equipo Nizkor, February 4, 1999 (Spanish)
5. ^ Amnesty law passed without MPs from Kabila's party by IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
6. ^ Amnesty Law Biggest Obstacle to Human Rights, Say Activists by Raúl Gutiérrez, Inter Press Service News Agency, May 19, 2007
7. ^ Lebanon: Mass Graves - Exhumations must be in line with international standards, and perpetrators brought to justice by Amnesty International, December 5, 2005
8. ^ The New Amnesty Law in Peru by NACLA Report on the Americas (Sept/Oct 1995)
9. ^ Senegal opposition to amnesty law By Tidiane Sy, BBC, January, 11, 2005
10. ^ Is the Sierra Leonean Amnesty Law Compatible with International Law? by Phenyo Keiseng Rakate, MenschenRechtsMagazin Heft 3 / 2000
11. ^ No longer punishable under US law- Thoughts on the "Bringing Terrorists to Justice Act of 2006" John Dean, FindLaw,Sep. 22, 2006
- The Military Commissions Act of 2006: A Short Primer - Part Two of a Two-Part Series By JOANNE MARINER, FindLaw, Oct. 25, 2006
- Why The Military Commissions Act is No Moderate Compromise By MICHAEL C. DORF, FindLaw, Oct. 11, 2006
12. ^ Pushing Back on Detainee Act by Michael Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, The Nation, October 4, 2006
13. ^ Military Commissions Act of 2006 - Why The Military Commissions Act is No Moderate Compromise By MICHAEL C. DORF, FindLaw, Oct. 11, 2006
- The CIA, the MCA, and Detainee Abuse By JOANNE MARINER, FindLaw, November 8, 2006
- Europe's Investigations of the CIA's Crimes By JOANNE MARINER, FindLaw, Februari 20, 2007
- Bush's War Crimes Cover-up by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, December 8th, 2006
- The John McCain Charade by Robert Kuttner, the Boston Globe, October 1, 2006
- Bush's "Dirty War" Amnesty Law By Robert Parry, Consortium News, September 23, 2006
- Republican Torture Laws Will Live in History By Larisa Alexandrovna, AlterNet, October 2, 2006.
ex post facto law (from the Latin for "from something done afterward") or retrospective law, is a law that retrospectively changes the legal consequences of acts committed or the legal status of facts and relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law.
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Human rights refers to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
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In international law a crime against humanity is an act of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, and is the highest level of criminal offense.
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revolution (from Late Latin revolutio which means "a turn around") is a significant change that usually occurs in a short period of time. Variously defined revolutions have been happening throughout human history.
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coup d'état (IPA: [kuːdeɪˈtɑː] or AHD: [ko͞o"dā tä]), or simply coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, often through illegal means by a part of the state establishment —
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civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight against each other for the control of political power.
Some civil wars are categorized as revolutions when major societal restructuring is a possible outcome of the conflict.
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Some civil wars are categorized as revolutions when major societal restructuring is a possible outcome of the conflict.
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Counter-insurgency, commonly abbreviated COIN, is a type of military campaign used in an occupation or a civil war to quell rebellion. Counter-insurgency is usually conducted in conjunction with conventional military operations, propaganda, and psychological operations.
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Human rights refers to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
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In international law a crime against humanity is an act of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, and is the highest level of criminal offense.
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Human rights refers to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.
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Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity,
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Human Rights Watch is a United States-based international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters is in New York City.
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The Humanitarian Law Project (founded 1985) is a U.S.-based non-profit organization organization, working to protect human rights and promote "the peaceful resolution of conflict by using established international human rights laws and humanitarian law.
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Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Spanish: Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo) is an association of Argentine mothers whose children "disappeared" under the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.
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Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations. Constitutions are the framework for government and may limit or define the authority and procedure of political bodies to execute new laws and regulations.
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International law can refer to three distinct legal disciplines.
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- public international law, which involves for instance the United Nations, maritime law, international criminal law and the Geneva conventions.
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Impunity means "exemption from punishment or loss".[1] In the international law of human rights, it refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims' right to justice and redress.
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Judicial review is the power of a court to review the actions of public sector bodies in terms of their constitutionality. In some jurisdictions it is also possible to review the constitutionality of the law itself.
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Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) were federal assistance block grant programs provided by the United States Department of Justice to local governments, which would then use the funds to support public safety or crime prevention efforts.
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Amnesty (from the Greek amnestia, oblivion) is an act of justice by which the supreme power in a state restores those who may have been guilty of any offence against it to the position of innocent persons.
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The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt)[1] was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, although it cannot currently exercise jurisdiction
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Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes.
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Afghanistan
This article is part of the series:
Politics of Afghanistan
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This article is part of the series:
Politics of Afghanistan
- Constitution
- Loya jirga
- President
- Vice President
- Cabinet of Ministers
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Afghanistan has been invaded many times, its boundaries and legitimate government have almost always been in dispute. Invaders include: the Mughal rulers of South Asia, Russian Tsars, Soviet Union, British Empire, and currently a coalition force of NATO troops with UN-backing led by US
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U.S.:
427 killed, 1,636 wounded Canada:
66 killed, 270+ wounded
UK:
70 killed
Other NATO forces:
92 killed
Afghan forces:
1,600 killed
Philippine military:
282 killed
Ethiopian army, Somali TFG, Somali ARPCT:
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427 killed, 1,636 wounded Canada:
66 killed, 270+ wounded
UK:
70 killed
Other NATO forces:
92 killed
Afghan forces:
1,600 killed
Philippine military:
282 killed
Ethiopian army, Somali TFG, Somali ARPCT:
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The term Wars in Afghanistan may refer to:
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- Islamic conquest of Afghanistan (637-709)
- First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842)
- Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1881)
- Panjdeh Incident (1885)
- Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919)
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Participants in operations
United States
United Kingdom
Israel
Canada
Australia
Poland
Netherlands
Iraq
Afghanistan
India
Pakistan
Philippines
Somalia
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United States
United Kingdom
Israel
Canada
Australia
Poland
Netherlands
Iraq
Afghanistan
India
Pakistan
Philippines
Somalia
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The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives.
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During the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, a variety of massacres occurred. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has avowed its responsibility for many of them, while for others no group has claimed responsibility.
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The Military History of Algeria covers a vast time period and complex events. It interacts with multiple military events in the region for independence and stability.
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Independence from Carthage
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Herod_Archelaus
