Peru Congress commission advances bill protecting alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity

[Judi Lynn]

Daniela Pulido | Facultad de Derecho PUCP, PE
MARCH 13, 2024 10:12:35 PM

The Constitutional Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved Tuesday the report of Bill No. 6951/2023-CR, which establishes that no one can be prosecuted, sentenced or punished for crimes against humanity or war crimes committed before July 1, 2002. As a result, emblematic cases from the period of internal violence in Peru between 1980 and 2000, which were still awaiting a definitive judicial response, could be closed.

According to the bill, the continuation of open trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, when such trials began before the entry into force of the Rome Statute (2002) and the Convention on the Imprescriptibility of Crimes of War and Crimes against Humanity (2003), is contrary to the principle of non-retroactivity in criminal law. In this regard, Article 7 of the draft law states the following:

The prescription of trials conducted on the presumption of crimes against humanity and/or war crimes is declared in cases where the maximum period established by the applicable criminal law has already been observed.

. . .

Although the Commission recommended that the crimes committed be promptly investigated, there are ongoing judicial processes related to crimes committed during the conflict that have been ongoing for more than 20 years. For instance, the Manta and Vilca case, which involves widespread and systematic acts of sexual violence committed by the military.

More:
https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/03/peru-congress-advances-bill-protecting-alleged-perpetrators-of-crimes-against-humanity/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Just because the US corporate "news" media haven't covered Peruvian racist suppression of the poor doesn't mean

2009
Untold Truths: The Exclusion of Enforced
Sterilizations from the Peruvian Truth
Commission's Final Report
Jocelyn E. Getgen
Cornell Law School, [e-mail]

JOCELYN E. GETGEN*

ABSTRACT:: This Article argues that the exclusion of enforced sterilization cases from the Peruvian Truth Commission's investigation and Final Report effectively erases State responsibility and decreases the likelihood for justice and reparations for women victims-survivors of Statesponsored violence in Peru. In a context of deep cultural and economic
divides and violent conflict, this Article recounts how the State's Family
Planning Program violated Peruvian women's reproductive rights by
sterilizing low-income, indigenous Quechua-speaking women without
informed consent. This Article argues that these systematic reproductive
injustices constitute an act of genocide, proposes an independent inquiry, and advocates for a more inclusive investigation and final report
for future truth commissions whose goals include truth, accountability,
and justice for all victims-survivors of state-sponsored violence. Leaders
responsible for the enforced sterilization of more than 200,000 Peruvian
women, including former President Alberto Ken'ya Fujimori, must be
held accountable for past violations in order to fully realize future reconciliation and justice in Peru.

"[E]very society has the inalienable right to know the truth about past
events, as well as the motives and circumstances in which aberrant crimes
came to be committed.. .. "

INTRODUCTION

Does time heal all wounds? Can a transitioning democratic society
move forward without fully facing the human rights violations that
plague its past? Or can only truth and justice reconcile large-scale
abuses? Difficult lessons from the recent past have taught societies and
nations that legitimate democracies require political and personal accountability reinforced by the rule of law.2 International human rights
treaties thus impose upon states a duty to investigate, criminally prosecute, and punish perpetrators of crimes against humanity.3 Although
state actions taken in response to gross violations of human rights are
never truly adequate when communities, families, and individuals suffer irreparable harms, inaction is invariably worse. 4 A state's failure to
respond appropriately and justly to gross human rights abuses can give
victims the sense that their perpetrators emerged either victorious or
with clean hands.5

The Peruvian government's response to twenty years of human
rights abuses from 1980 to 2000 included creating a truth commission
with a broad mandate to "promote national reconciliation, the rule of
justice and the strengthening of the constitutional democratic regime." 6 By forming the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR),7 the State initiated a process of achieving national reconciliation through an attempt to correct the historical record, provide
a collective memory and preserve the possibility of criminal account ability and justice.

More:
https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2077&context=facpub

[Judi Lynn]

2. Peru: Lethal state repression is yet another example of contempt for the Indigenous and campesino population

February 16, 2023

Since the beginning of the massive protests in different areas of the country in December 2022, the Army and National Police of Peru (PNP) have unlawfully fired lethal weapons and used other less lethal weapons indiscriminately against the population, especially against Indigenous people and campesinos (rural farmworkers) during the repression of protests, constituting widespread attacks, Amnesty International said today, upon presenting the initial findings of its research in the country.

During the investigation in Ayacucho, Andahuaylas, Chincheros and Lima between 29 January and 11 February, Amnesty International received information regarding 46 cases of possible human rights violations and documented 12 cases of deaths from the use of firearms. The organization also received information on serious shortcomings in the investigation of human rights violations and the administration of justice.

“With a total of 48 people dead from state repression, 11 deaths from road blockades and one policeman killed, as well as hundreds injured in a tragic period of state violence, the Peruvian authorities have allowed the excessive and lethal use of force to be the government’s only response for more than two months to the clamor of thousands of communities who today demand dignity and a political system that guarantees their human rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

In a context of great political uncertainty, the first expressions of social unrest emerged from several of Peru’s most marginalized regions, such as Apurímac, Ayacucho and Puno, whose mostly Indigenous populations have historically suffered from discrimination, unequal access to political participation and an ongoing struggle to access basic rights to health, housing and education. Protests soon spread to the capital, Lima, and other parts of the country.

. . .

Amnesty International conducted an analysis based on data from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office, using the concentration of protests and the number of deaths due to repression as parameters. It has found that the number of possible arbitrary deaths due to state repression is disproportionately concentrated in regions with largely Indigenous populations. This is despite the fact that the level of state violence during the demonstrations was practically equal to that recorded in other places, such as Lima, for example. While the regions with majority Indigenous populations represent only 13% of Peru’s total population, they account for 80% of the total deaths registered since the crisis began. The evidence suggests that the authorities acted with a marked racist bias, targeting populations that have historically been discriminated against.

The systemic racism ingrained in Peruvian society and its authorities for decades has been the driving force behind the violence used to punish communities that have raised their voices.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

More:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/peru-lethal-state-repression/