10 encompasses likewise general international law39. Moreover, the jus cogens, in my understanding, is an open category, which expands itself to the extent that the universal juridical conscience (material source of all law) awakens for the necessity to protect the rights inherent to each human being in every and any situation” (para. 68). 30. Thus, nowadays, prohibition of the practices of torture and inhuman treatment, forced disappearance of persons, summary and extrajudicial executions, and failure to respect personal honor and beliefs (including those related to the relations between the living and the dead), is absolute and universal, because it belongs to the domain of international jus cogens. This prohibition is affirmed in these terms today, owing to the awakening of the universal juridical conscience, which, I repeat, constitutes the material source of all law. The violation of this general prohibition gives rise to the aggravated international responsibility of the State and the international criminal responsibility of those responsible for the violations (both masterminds and perpetrators). 31. As I also indicated in my abovementioned concurring opinion in this Court’s Advisory Opinion No 18 on The Juridical Status and Rights of Undocumented Migrants (2003): "To the international objective responsibility of the States corresponds necessarily the notion of objective illegality (one of the elements underlying the concept of jus cogens). In our days, no one would dare to deny the objective illegality of acts of genocide, of systematic practices of torture, of summary and extra-legal executions, and of forced disappearance of persons (...), condemned by the universal juridical conscience, parallel to the application of treaties. (...) The emergence and assertion of jus cogens evoke the notions of international public order and of a hierarchy of legal norms, as well as the prevalence of the jus necessarium over the jus voluntarium; jus cogens presents itself as the juridical expression of the very international community as a whole, which, at last, takes conscience of itself, and of the fundamental principles and values which guide it” (paras. 71 and 73). 32. The above-mentioned jus cogens prohibitions are categorical nowadays, at the current stage of the evolution of contemporary international law. In addition, they reveal the gradual emergence of a universal international law. The purpose of jus cogens is precisely to ensure the most fundamental interests and values of the international community as a whole.40 The said prohibitions (of grave human rights violations) indicate, according to M. Lachs, how: "mankind, or the international community, on its journey through history, found it necessary to outlaw once and for all certain actions (...). On this, the deniers and doubters have to agree, if they accept the basic premises of law and the imperative of its progress."41 33. There are international obligations relating to the safeguard of fundamental values of the international community that differ from other international obligations; this has given rise to the emergence in contemporary international law of concepts 39 For the extension of jus cogens to all possible juridical acts, cf., e.g., E. Suy, «The Concept of Jus Cogens in Public International Law», in Papers and Proceedings of the Conference on International Law (Langonissi, Greece, April 3 to 8, 1966), Geneva, C.E.I.P., 1967, pp. 17-77. 40 B. Simma, "From Bilateralism to Community Interest in International Law," 250 Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International de La Haye (1994) p. 289. 41 M. Lachs, "The Development and General Trends of International Law in Our Time," 169 Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International de La Haye (1976) pp. 272-273.

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