International Criminal Law in full evolution (with its impact on the States’ domestic law).
In my opinion, the Law is just one, and all these aspects must be treated from the
perspective of a necessarily integrating hermeneutics.
100. In the present sphere of protection of human beings, there is still a long way to
go, despite the important progress of the doctrine and practice of international law in the
previous years. The first steps have been taken, both nationally and internationally, in the
fight against impunity and in favor of the prevalence of the right to trust and justice. In
its request for interpretation, of March 15, 2007, of the Judgment of merits and
reparations in the present case of the Castro Castro Prison, the Peruvian State invoked
the right to truth (para. 52), while acknowledging the work in favor of this right carried
out in Peru by he Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (para. 5(20)), duly taken into
consideration by the Inter-American Court (para. 5(23)).
101. The appellant State referred to the proven “multiplicity of criminal acts”
perpetrated by members of Sendero Luminoso84 that victimized the population and
“remain in the nation’s collective conscience," (para. 5(20)), while acknowledging that
they “are not a direct party to this case” of the Castro Castro Prison (para. 5(2)). It is
understandable that the appellant State would evoke, in the same brief, the protection of
all victims (para. 6(20)), of the tragic armed conflict that flagellated the country, and
specifically its population, as well as search for a clarification of the applicable law and the
recent doctrinal progress in this regard (para. 6(2)).
102. What is not true (precise) is to presume that the international juridical system is
not built for situations such as those of the mentioned Peruvian armed conflict (para.
6(27)). The considerations previously developed by me reveal a series of complexities
that instead lead to precisions with regard to the applicable law (cf. supra). But – I allow
myself to insist on this matter – nothing is beyond the protection of the Law. In what
refers to the Inter-American Court, its jurisdiction, in the terms of the American
Convention, it is directed towards the determination of the State’s responsibility, for
which it must confine itself to the facts stated in the application. But the regulations on
protection of the American Convention do not exclude the concomitant application of
pp. 25-28 y 195-197; A.A. Cançado Trindade, Derecho Internacional de los Derechos
Humanos, Derecho Internacional de los Refugiados y Derecho Internacional Humanitario Aproximaciones y Convergencias, Ginebra, CICV, [2000], pp. 1-66; A.A. Cançado
Trindade, "Aproximaciones y Convergencias Revisitadas: Diez Años de Interacción entre
el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, el Derecho Internacional de los
Refugiados, y el Derecho Internacional Humanitario (De Cartagena/1984 a San
José/1994 y México/2004)", in Memoria del Vigésimo Aniversario de la Declaración de
Cartagena sobre los Refugiados (1984-2004), 1a. ed., San José de Costa Rica/México,
ACNUR, 2005, pp. 139-191; A.A. Cançado Trindade, "International Law for Humankind:
Towards a New Jus Gentium - General Course on Public International Law - Part II", 317
Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International de la Haye (2005) cap. XXIII, pp.
150-171; A.A. Cançado Trindade, A Humanização do Direito Internacional, Belo
Horizonte/Brasil, Edit. Del Rey, 2006, pp. 279-352.
.
On the history of Sendero Luminoso, cf., v.g., S. Roncagliolo, La Cuarta Espada,
Lima, Ed. Debate, 2007, pp. 15-245; and on the violence and origins of the terrorism of
Sendero Luminoso, cf., v.g., [Several Authors,] Shining Path of Peru (ed. D. Scott
Palmer), N.Y., St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 1-247.
84
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