The Contributions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to the Development of Transitional Justice

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-475
Author(s):  
Eleonora Mesquita Ceia
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Latin American Countries

Transitional justice refers to the set of judicial and non-judicial measures adopted by different countries in order to confront their dictatorial past. In practice, countries adopt different transitional policies according to their own political, legal, social, historical, and cultural traditions. This applies, for example, to Latin American countries, some of which enacted amnesty laws currently in force, while others tried and convicted those responsible for human rights violations. In this process, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has contributed significantly to the progress of transitional justice. Through its jurisprudence, the Court has enshrined fundamental principles related to transitional justice. In addition, it has helped Latin American countries overcome jurisprudential positions and revoke national laws that contradict international human rights standards. This article examines the contribution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to the development of transitional justice, with an emphasis on the case of Brazil. Ultimately, it assesses the impact of selected court jurisprudence on Brazil in order to identify the quality of the existing dialogue on transitional justice between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court.

Lois Mémorielles in Post-Genocide Societies: The Rwandan Law on Genocide Ideology under International Human Rights Law Scrutiny

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIETRO SULLO
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
European Countries ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Law ◽  
Human Rights Standards

AbstractThis article discusses the Rwandan Law 18/2008 on genocide ideology in the light of international human rights standards. In order to put the genocide ideology law into context, it sketches a brief overview of the post-genocide scenario. Because of the influence that provisions restricting freedom of expression aimed at fighting negationism might exert on testimonies during genocide trials, it pays particular attention to the transitional justice strategies adopted in Rwanda. Finally, it assesses the law on the genocide ideology against the background provided by the measures implemented in some European countries to deal with the phenomenon of negationism.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Huneeus
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Latin American Countries

This chapter seeks to explain why the impact of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights varies greatly across the different Latin American countries under its jurisdiction. Three case studies suggest that the uneven spread of constitutional ideas and practices across Latin America helps shape the type of authority the IACtHR exerts. In Colombia, where neoconstitutionalist lawyers were able to successfully ally themselves with reformers and participate in the construction of a new constitution and court starting in 1991, the Court now enjoys narrow, intermediate, and extensive authority. In Chile, where constitutional reform was muted, and neoconstitutionalist doctrines have not found strong adherents in the judiciary, the IACtHR has achieved narrow authority and, at times, intermediate authority. In Venezuela, neoconstitutionalism was sidelined as the new Bolivarian constitutional order was forged. Meanwhile, the Mexican case study suggests that the neoconstitutionalist movement can also work transnationally.

Temporal Patterns in Latin American Truth Commission Recommendation Formulation and Implementation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm ◽  
Dylan Wright
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Commission Recommendation ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Global Initiatives

Abstract Remarkably little attention has focused on the formulation and implementation of truth commission (tc) recommendations. We use Skaar et al.’s original data on approximately 1000 recommendations produced by 13 truth commissions established in 11 Latin American countries between 1983 and 2014 to examine how recommendations and government responses to them have evolved over nearly 40 years. Truth commissions appear to be regularly influenced by major global transitional justice and human rights developments as they formulate recommendations. They target specific marginalised identity groups in their recommendations, particularly after major global initiatives to recognise the rights of such groups. Yet, governments often forego implementing such recommendations. Recommendations also appear to be shaped by whether the commission was established right after a political transition. Post-transitional commissions, which come five or more years after transition, issue more recommendations dealing with reparations of all sorts. However, whether overwhelmed by the number of proposals or more immune to pressure to enact such measures, governments implement these recommendations less regularly. These commissions also do not invoke the importance of reconciliation as transitional commissions do.

scholarly journals Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Political Regimes

1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 801-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhoda E. Howard ◽  
Jack Donnelly
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Human ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Human Rights Standards

It is often argued that internationally recognized human rights are common to all cultural traditions and adaptable to a great variety of social structures and political regimes. Such arguments confuse human rights with human dignity. All societies possess conceptions of human dignity, but the conception of human dignity underlying international human rights standards requires a particular type of “liberal” regime. This conclusion is reached through a comparison of the social structures of ideal type liberal, minimal, traditional, communist, corporatist and developmental regimes and their impact on autonomy, equality, privacy, social conflict, and the definition of societal membership.

scholarly journals The Impact of Constitutional Replacements on the Quality of Democracy in Latin America

Politologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-128
Author(s):  
Orestas Strauka
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Party System ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
And Inversion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Latin American Countries

The article aims to evaluate whether and how constitutional replacements influence the quality of democracy in Latin American countries. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method is applied while analysing 18 Latin American countries. The objective of the article- nine new constitutions that are assigned to the new constitutionalism period. The results reveal that constitutional replacements are neither sufficient nor necessary condition for quality of democracy. On the contrary, the parsimonious solution shows that quality of democracy can be explained by both high levels of education and inversion of constitutional replacements and inversion of constitutional replacements, institutionalised party system and non-homogeneous society. Inversion of quality of democracy analysis indicated that constitutional replacements, together with other conditions, form sufficient conditions for inversion of quality of democracy.  

Human Rights on the March: Repression, Oppression, and Protest in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Latin American Countries

Abstract This research examines the impact of human rights protests on human rights abuses in seven Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. I find that protests focused broadly on human rights are associated with significant declines in human rights abuses, controlling for important factors from previous studies. Furthermore, I argue that it is important to distinguish political repression (abuses that target political activists) from coercive state oppression, which has nonpolitical targets. These two types of abuses respond to different factors, but broadly focused human rights protests are found to decrease both types of abuses. I argue further that a strong human rights movement, indicated by frequent human rights protests, discourages the police abuses associated with oppression by raising the likelihood of accountability for such abuses, including by improving the likelihood of reforms to the criminal justice system.

Mobilizing International Norms: Domestic Actors, Immigrants, and the Japanese State

1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Gurowitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
International Norms ◽  
International Standards ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
The Impact

In recent years immigrant rights have increasingly been examined in an international context. An important theme in these discussions has been the question of whether, and if so how, states are constrained in developing immigrant and immigration policies. Some scholars argue that states are constrained by international human rights standards, while others, skeptical of this position, focus on a wide range of arguments at the domestic level of analysis. The skeptics are right that those asserting the impact of international human rights standards on immigrant policy have not demonstrated their importance domestically. International norms and standards do not diffuse automatically or consistently across states, and there has been too little detailed process tracing to illustrate the mechanisms of norm diffusion and therefore to move beyond correlation. To do so requires attention to the domestic actors who mobilize international norms and to the specific domestic circumstances in which they operate. This article examines a hard case by studying the impact of international human rights standards on policies toward Koreans and more recent migrant workers in Japan. In this case international norms matter. But they do not matter in a mysterious or automatic way. Domestic actors use international norms in context-specific environments to back up and make arguments for which they have few domestic resources. This is not a story of international versus domestic politics, nor is it a story about a paralyzed state. State actors are actively involved in the process of integrating international standards domestically, and the author examines how those standards work their way into the political process.

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