Criterios interamericanos en materia de verdad y de justicia para el diseño y adopción de un marco de justicia transicional

Abstract

The adoption and the design of a transnational scenario to search the peace and/or democracy has been widely analyzed at an international level. It involves two objectives that might be contradictory, on the one hand, the satisfaction of the components of truth and Justice and on the other, the need to overcome the facts that resulted in serious violations of the human rights. Said issue has generated a diversity of positions, among which are those of the Inter-American Court of human rights and the Inter-American Commission of human rights, such as maximum organs of protection and promotion of human rights in the American continent. Therefore, this document aims to identify the criteria that should be taken into account by the States who are members of the American Convention of Rights in matters of truth and justice at the time of adopting a framework of transitional justice according to the decisions of the two bodies of the Inter-American system of human rights. According to this, the decisions of these organisms will be examined in the study of this problem, and they will be analyzed in a comparative way, in order to delimit the obligations, which should be taken into account by the States at the time of adopting a mechanism of Transitional justice. Among these obligations it is found the need for a holistic approach in the adoption of a transitional stage. Said approach has to allow the satisfaction of the rights of the victims, enshrined in articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention of Human rights, without limiting the possibility of States to adopt repentance laws which contribute to the achievement of peace and democracy, without having these laws constituting a simple justice grant designed to encourage the impunity of the facts.