Subject: British High Court ruling on Pinochet
violates international law
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 18:48:53 GMT
From: tapol@gn.apc.org (TAPOL)Equipo Nizkor Derechos Human Rights Serpaj Europe
Information 29oct1998 [i) and ii) messages]
HIGH COURT RULING ON PINOCHET VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW
i) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK/CHILE: HIGH COURT DECISION: A DANGEROUS SETBACK FOR
INTERNATIONAL LAW
[News Service 210/98 - AI INDEX: AMR 22/15/98 - 28 October 1998]
Today's decision by the UK High Court granting Augusto Pinochet immunity from
prosecution as a former head of state is an alarming setback in the international struggle
against impunity, Amnesty International said today.
"This decision is extremely disappointing and dangerously out of step with
existing international law which provides that there are no grounds for immunity in
matters relating to crimes against humanity," the organization said. "It sets a
worrying precedent for those who commit crimes against humanity using the state apparatus.
It sends a message that these crimes can be committed without punishment."
"How can there be any credibility to the promises made by governments in the
defence of human rights if international law is undermined by granting protection to those
who commit crimes against humanity," Amnesty International added.
According to international law those implicated in crimes against humanity do not have
any immunity as the obligation to exercise justice in these cases is absolute. This was
established by the Statute of the Nuremberg International Tribunal and recognised as
international law by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1946.
Amnesty International is urging the House of Lords to apply this principle, and thereby
reiterate the commitment of the United Kingdom to prosecute crimes against humanity.
"The commitment to uphold international law in cases of crimes against humanity
has been greatly undermined by the English High Court decision today," Amnesty
International said.
"It is imperative that the UK authorities do not endorse the impunity under which
these crimes have been shrouded. The UK authorities should now demonstrate their
commitment to fully cooperate with the legal steps taken by Spain, Switzerland and Great
Britain to punish these crimes."
These principles have been reaffirmed in the Statutes of the international tribunals
for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as the Statute for the International
Criminal Court, adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998. The United Kingdom has contributed
greatly to these and other efforts to create international penal justice.
"This makes today's decision all the more disappointing. Furthermore, it is a flat
contradiction to the way the soon to be established International Criminal Court will
operate," Amnesty International asserted. The agreement to establish the Court
expressly gives the Court the power to try anyone including former heads of States.
BACKGROUND: The Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal provided: Article 7: The official
position of defendants, whether as Heads of State or responsible officials in Government
Departments, shall not be considered as freeing them from responsibility or mitigating
punishment". The judgement of the Tribunal, established this obligation: The
principle of international law, which under certain circumstances, protects the
representative of a state, cannot be applied to acts which are condemned as criminal by
international law. The authors of these acts cannot shelter themselves behind their
official position in order to be freed from punishment in appropriate proceedings".
The United Nations General Assembly declared this principle to be international law in
its Resolution 95 (I) of 11 December 1946. These principles were acknowledged by the
United Kingdom as a party to the Nuremberg Charter which set up the Tribunal, on which
British judges then served.
ii) HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REJECTS HIGH COURT RULING ON PINOCHET DETENTION October 28, 1998
Human Rights Watch rejected today's ruling by Britain's High Court that former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution for acts committed as head of state.
The organization expressed confidence that the ruling would be overturned on appeal.
"Beginning with the Nazi leaders tried at Nuremberg, the international community
has consistently held government officials responsible for crimes against humanity,"
said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. "This principle was
re-affirmed this year when the former Rwandan prime minister was held guilty of genocide
by an international court."
The Nuremberg Principles state that "The fact that a person who committed an act
which constitutes a crime under international law acted as a Head of State or responsible
government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international
law."
"These international principles exist precisely for situations in which countries
are unable to bring government leaders to justice for crimes against humanity," said
Roth.
Official Chilean investigations have confirmed that more than 3,100 people were victims
of extrajudicial execution or "disappearance." Thousands of others were victims
of torture, arbitrary detention, forced internal exile, or other abuses.
For more information, contact HRW at: - José Miguel Vivanco +1-202-371-6599 x 145
(Washington) - Joel Solomon +1-202-371-6599 x 128 (Washington) - Reed Brody
+1-212-216-1206 (New York)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: 0. Brief account of the crimes the Argentinian and Chilean
military are accused of, an explanation of the procedural background of the trials, and a
summary of the bases for jurisdiction that the instructing judges have claimed.
http://www.derechos.net/marga/papers/spain.html
1. Spanish Criminal Prosecutions Use International Human Rights Law to Battle Impunity in
Chile and Argentina. Richard Wilson Director Human Rights Law Clinic American University.
Washington D.C.
http://www.derechos.org/koaga/iii/5/wilson.html
2. Punishing Pinochet.By Peter Weiss (VicePpresident of the Center of Constitutional
Rights, which represented the family of Charles Horman, who was murdered in Chile shortly
after the Pinochet coup).
http://www.izquierda-unida.es/Secretarias/DerechosHumanos/index.html
3. Pinochet; Is a Terrorist Hiding in Chile's Senate? By: Scott Armstrong and Saul Landau
(Scott Armstrong founded the National Security Archives in Washington. Saul Landau is
chair of interdisciplinary applied knowledge at California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona, and a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies).
http://www.izquierda-unida.es/Secretarias/DerechosHumanos/index.html
4. Autumn of the autocrat. By Saul Landau and Sarah Anderson (Saul Landau and Sarah
Anderson are fellows of the Institute For Policy Studies. Landau is also co-author (with
John Dinges) of Assassination on Embassy Row, on the Letelier-Moffit murders, and
currently the Hugh O. La Bounty Chair of Interdisciplinary Applied Knowledge at California
State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
http://www.izquierda-unida.es/Secretarias/DerechosHumanos/index.html
5. Ko'aga Rone'eta - La "Operación Cóndor": El Terrorismo de Estado de Alcance
Transnacional. Por Esteban Cuya (Investigador del Centro de Derechos Humanos de
Nüremberg) The "Operation Condor". The State Terrorism of Trasnational Scope.
(ESP/SPA)
http://www.derechos.org/koaga/vii/2/cuya.html
6. Ko'aga Rone'eta - Los Archivos del Horror del Operativo Cóndor. Por Stella Calloni
(periodista -editora en El Día Latinoamericano -Ciudad de México- y corresponsal en
América del Sur para La Jornada -Ciudad de México-). The Archives of the Horror of the
Operative Cóndor. By Stella Calloni - Publisher in the Latin American Day (City of
Mexico) and correspondent in South America for the Day (City of Mexico). (ESP/SPA)
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/doc/condor/calloni.html
7. Listado de los 521 oficiales y suboficiales en servicio entre 1973 y 1975 en la
organización criminal DINA y en las todas las regiones militares de la República de
Chile (List of 521 officers and subordinates in active service between 1973 y 1975 in the
criminal organozatin DINA by regional districts.
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/chile/doc/int/listado.htm
8. Recuerdos del proceso de Nuremberg por Jacques Bernard Herzog. Texto completo de la
conferencia del 3 de mayo de 1949 sobre la jurisdicción penal internacional y el proceso
de Nuremberg (Substituto del Procurador de la República del Sena, Ex Substituto del
Procurador General francés ante el Tribunal Militar Internacional de Nuremberg,
Secretario General de la Revista Internacional de Derecho Penal). Remembrances of the
Nuremberg trials, by Jacques Bernard Herzog. (ESP/SPA)
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/doc/herzog.html
9. Providencia por la que el Magistrado Juez Baltasar Garzón solicita ampliación de
rogatoria a Paraguay para la obtención de documentos relacionados con la "Operación
Cóndor". Madrid, 04.09.1998 (Request of documents to the Paraguayan authroties in
relation with the Condor operative by Magistrate-Judge Baltasar Garzon)
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/arg/espana/condor.html
10. Ampliación de la denuncia contra Pinochet. Testimonio del F.B.I. sobre la Operación
Cóndor Madrid, Septiembre 1996. (Spanish translation of the famous FBI telegram defining
the Operation Condor)
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/chile/juicio/amp.html
11. Ampliación de la querella por parte de Izquierda Unida en contra de Augusto Pinochet
Ugarte. (Izquierda Unida's request against Augusto Pinochet)
http://www.derechos.net/mirror/chile/juicio/amplia.html
12. Auto de prisión provisional incondicional de Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Writ of
Provisional unconditional imprisonment against Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.
http://www.derechos.net/mirror/chile/juicio/captura.html
13. Auto ampliando la fundamentación (Listado de 94 víctimas). Extended writ. List of 94
victims.
http://www.derechos.net/mirror/chile/juicio/funda.html
14. Documento Fungairiño fundamentando la oposición a los juicios. The Fungairiño
report arguing his antidemocratic opposition to the spanish trials.
http://www.derechos.net/mirror/arg/espana/fuga.htmlFIN
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