flagellates the Peruvian society. From within this same society emerged the awareness of
the need for the search for justice, for public justice, in order to end the self-destructive
cylce of revenges. As in Aeschylus’ Oresteia it was understood that they could no longer
survive in the midst of the growing decomposition of the social fabric, in the middle of the
intense pain of the surviving next of kin of so many fatal victims. It was understood that
they should step out of the darkness in search of the light, that violence should be
abandoned in search of the solution to these social problems based on reason.
21.
Victims cannot be forgotten. There is a duty to remember, as stated by Primo Levi
in the XX century, in his tenacious fight to preserve the memory in honor of the victims,
especially in a fast mutating world, a little "livré au hasard".21 Even to defend the
memory – as a form of reparation – we must turn to justice. The justice of Athena in the
Oresteia, is imposed to guarantee the due reparation of the damages suffered by all of
them, - in our times the victims of both the terrorism of the acts of clandestine agents as
well as the State’s terrorism. Within this Court, I have pointed out the duty to remember
in my Concurring Opinion in the case of Gutiérrez Soler versus Colombia (Judgment of
09.12.2005).
22.
Even though the applicable law may be different in different situations, of
perpetration of crimes attributable to state agents or non-state groups (cf. infra), all the
victims are under the protective cloak of the Law (precisely to avoid the tragic scene of
Agamemnon’s bloody tunic). And all those responsible, both the non-State groups as well
as the State itself, are covered by the Law (the rule of Law, the préeminence du Droit, in
a democratic society), nobody is excluded from the protection or prescriptions (even
punitive for the crimes committed) of the Law. The juridical relationships themselves may
not be considered in abstracto, making abstraction of the parties; the "administration" of
justice cannot lose sight of the parties.
23.
For years, within this Court, I have stated the imperative need to look for a
greater approximation between International Human Rights Law and contemporary
Criminal Law (v.g., in my Concurring Opinions in the cases of Myrna Mack Chang versus
Guatemala, Judgment of 09.18.2003; of Goiburú et al. versus Paraguay, Judgment of
09.22.2006; of Almonacid Arellano versus Chile, Judgment of 09.26.2006). I have done
so precisely to guarantee the realization of Justice in any and all circumstances, and face
a new disturbing phenomenon for the (international) protection of human rights: that of
the diversification of the sources of violations of human rights.
24.
In synthesis, all victims have the right to reparations for the suffering they
underwent, and all perpetrating agents of illegal acts (national and international) must
assume the juridical consequences of the illegal acts committed.
In what refers to human rights treaties, the contemporary juridical doctrine itself is
currently making an effort to determine its effects with regard to third parties,22 seeking
precisely to guarantee a comprehensive protection of the human rights enshrined.
.
Primo Levi, Le devoir de mémoire (1982), Paris, Fayard, 2006, p. 38; and cf.
Primo Levi, "Si c'est un homme" (1947), in Oeuvres, Paris, Éd. R. Laffont, 2005, pp. 5157; M. Belpoliti y R. Gordon (eds.), The Voice of Memory - Interviews (1961-1987) with
Primo Levi, N.Y., New Press, 2001, pp. 223 and 255.
21
.
Cf., e.g., D. Spielmann, L'effet potentiel de la Convention Européenne des Droits
de l'Homme entre personnes privées, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1995, pp. 17-89; A. Clapham,
Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, Oxford/Florence, Academy of European
22
7