forgotten that, parallel to the establishment of the first treaties in the field of international human rights law, international demands have also emerged to fight against the impunity of those who violate human rights, which will be addressed below. ii. The imperative to fight against impunity and the appearance of an apparent tension in the international protection of Human Rights 33. The international sense of indignation at the massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law at the end of the Second World War and the desire that they not be repeated directed the States’ attention to the need to combat impunity and promote investigation and punishment of those responsible. From that moment on, the process described by Kathryn Sikkink as the “cascade of justice” began, 78, ““a dramatic and interrelated new trend in global politics of holding individual public officials, including heads of state, criminally responsible for human rights violations.” 79 34. From the institutional point of view, the first years of UN activity were marked by the General Assembly’s adoption of resolutions that emphasized the imperative of fighting impunity, 80 supported by the debates that preceded the creation of the Nuremberg Tribunal 81 and consolidated in the aforementioned Declaration and in the Program of Action of the Vienna World Conference (1993). In accordance with the descriptions by Professor and former Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade in a concurring opinion in the case of Barrios Altos v. Peru in 2001, these efforts demonstrated that the fight against impunity is “a truly universal cry (...).” 82 35. As has already been made clear in the Court’s case law discussed in the previous section (supra, para. 19-29), the fight against impunity for those who violate human rights is not an end in itself, but also aims to prevent future violations. This reasoning is verified in sources beyond the IHR System, with the UN International Law Commission, for example, having long stated that "prevention and punishment are simply two aspects of the obligation to provide protection and both have a common objective, namely, to prevent potential perpetrators of protected persons from carrying out such attacks." 83 The International Court of Justice ("ICJ"), for its part, has already pointed out, when dealing with the application of the Convention on Genocide (which provides for its criminal classification), that "provisions regulating punishment also have a deterrent and therefore a preventive effect" and that "one 78 Cf. SIKKINK, Kathryn. The Justice Cascade: how human rights prosecutions are changing world politics. Nova York; Londres: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, p. 9. The term had already been used by the author in LUTZ, Ellen; SIKKINK, Kathryn. The justice cascade: the evolution and impact of foreign human rights trials in Latin America. Chicago Journal of International Law, v. 2 (2001). According to Sikkink, the term "cascade" was borrowed from author Cass Sunstein, who used the term "social norm cascades" in his work to define a rapid and drastic change in the legitimacy of norms and actions on behalf of those rules. Cf. SUSTEIN, Cass. Free Markets and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 79 Cf. SIKKINK, Kathryn. The Justice Cascade: how human rights prosecutions are changing world politics. Nova York; Londres: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, p. 9 (our translation). 80 Cf. for example, AGNU. Resolution A/Res/3(I) (Extradition and Punishment of War Criminals) adopted on February 13, 1946; UNAG. Resolution A/RES/95(I) (Affirmation of the Principles of International Law Recognized by the Charter of the Nurnberg Tribunal) adopted on December 11, 1946. 81 Cf. RAMOS, André de Carvalho. ‘Criminalization mandates in the International Human Rights Law: new paradigms for the protection of victims of violations of human rights.’ Revista Brasileira de Ciências Criminais, vol. 62 (2006), p. 4. 82 Cf. Case of Barrios Altos v. Peru. Merits. Judgment of March 14, 2001. Series C No. 75. Reasoned opinion of Judge Cançado Trindade, para. 4. 83 Cf. International Law Commission. Fourth report on State responsibility, by Mr. Roberto Ago, Special Rapporteur. A. Doc. A/CN.4/264 e Add. 1 (1972-1973), p. 98 (our translation). 12