INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

International Human Rights Law



Question 1

What is the legal position regarding the responsibility of a State for human rights violations occurring outside of its territory? Discuss with reference to any relevant law, including international, regional and municipal/domestic case law.

The Universal Jurisdiction on Human Rights

The power is based on the rule of universal jurisdiction that is to say, the principle that each State is entitled to bring to justice the criminals of specific crimes of international unease, irrespective of the locations of crime (i.e. the place where it was commited) and irrespective of the national identity of the crimianal or victims. Generally, legal power over a crime stems from a link, typically protective, between the State responsible for conducting criminal and the crime itself. As stated by a respected lawyer "regarding the criminal cases against humanity that link might be found in the simple concept that we are all human beings." From the practical point of view, universal jurisdiction has been provided by international law, for those responsible for preventing more serious crimes to seek refuge abroad and thus evade justice.

Historically, piracy was the first crime called "universal", then was added the slave trade. These two categories of crimes have a specific common: they are committed on the high seas, beyond any border. But what about the atrocities committed within national borders? It was not until the end of the Second World War to the list of crimes that give rise to universal jurisdiction includes crimes committed at a national level, among them: war crimes, torture, apartheid and other "crimes against mankind". During the trial Filartiga - civil trial, but significant in the matter, brought by the family of a Paraguayan victim of torture residing in the United States against his torturer trip to the USA - a U.S. court fully described this vital evolution of international law: "The torturer has become like the pirate and merchant slaves of old, hostis humani generis, a rival of all mankind".

A difference of treatment based on these characteristics is always a negative assessment focused on the specifics of a person that it cannot change or only at the price of his dignity. This compact relationship with human dignity is found in all cases of discrimination: what I am, I owe largely to the sex to which I belong to my religion, my ethnicity or my language. These distinctive features of my person, I can remove them, or we may reasonably require of me that I give up.

Case Law

On the night of October 16, 1998, General Augusto Pinochet was arrested by London police. In doing so, the police executed a warrant charging the former Arrita Spanish dictator for crimes committed in Chile during his seventeen year reign. Subsequently, the British courts will reject the claim of immunity and decide he can be extradited to Spain to stand trial.

But, it is not in October 1998 that the Pinochet case actually began. It took shape much earlier, in the early years of Pinochet dictatorship ...