10
originally, from Customary International Law,197 and was later conceptually
developed under International Humanitarian Law,198 and, more recently, under
International Criminal Law.199 Here, we are in the realm of jus cogens, of peremptory
law. When human beings fall victim to such crimes, humanity as a whole is likewise
victimized. This has been expressly recognized by the ICTY (in the Case of Tadic,
1997); such crimes affect the human conscience (ICTY, Case of Erdemovic, 1996),200
-the universal juridical conscience,- and the aggrieved persons as well as humanity
itself fall victim to them.201 This line of analysis developed by International
Humanitarian Law and contemporary International Criminal Law must, in my view,
be incorporated into the conceptual universe of International Human Rights Law. This
Judgment of the Inter-American Court in the Case of Almonacid-Arellano et al.
constitutes a first step in this direction.
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade
Judge
Pablo Saavedra-Alessandri
Secretary
197
.
S.R. Ratner and J.S. Abrams, Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law,
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997, pp. 45-48.
198
.
Cf. J. Pictet, Développement et principes du Droit international humanitaire, Genève/Paris, Inst.
H.-Dunant/Pédone, 1983, pp. 107 and 77; C. Swinarski, Principales Nociones e Institutos del Derecho
Internacional Humanitario como Sistema Internacional de Protección de la Persona Humana (Basic
Concepts and Principles of International Humanitarian Law as an International System for the Protection of
Human Rights), San José de Costa Rica, IIDH, 1990, p. 20.
199
.
Cf. D. Robinson, "Defining ‘Crimes against Humanity’ at the Rome Conference," 93 American
Journal of International Law (1999) pp. 43-57; and, on the historical background, cf., e.g. H. Fujita, "Le
crime contre l'humanité dans les procès de Nuremberg et de Tokyo," 34 Kobe University Law Review
(2000) pp. 1-15. - Crimes against humanity are currently defined in The Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court (Article 7).
200
.
J.R.W.D. Jones, The Practice of the International Criminal Tribunals..., op. cit. supra n. (24), pp.
111-112.
201
.
A.A. Cançado-Trindade, “International Law for Humankind: Towards a New Jus Gentium - General
Course on Public International Law,” Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International de la Haye
(2005) Chapter XI (in print).
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