77 217. The same Supreme Court of Justice of Chile, in the case of Lecaros Carrasco, annulled a verdict of not guilty and invalidated the application of the Chilean amnesty in Decree Law No. 2.191 of 1978: 268 [T]he crime of kidnapping [...] has the character of a crime against humanity, and therefore, it is not necessary to invoke amnesty as a cause to extinguish criminal 269 responsibility. [T]he amnesty law enacted by the de facto authority which took on the "Supreme Command of the Nation," [...] must be interpreted in a way that conforms with the protective covenants of fundamental rights of the individual and sanctions the serious 270 violations committed against them during the period in which said legal body is in force. [T]he mentioned prohibition of the auto-exoneration not only concerns the obvious situations in which those in power have used the advantageous position which they held to extinguish responsibility, as is the case with self-given amnesty, but it also implies a suspension of the effectiveness of preexisting institutions, such as […] the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings, designed to operate in a state of social peace in which they are called to serve, but not in the situations of harm to the institutions in which the 271 State was set up, and for the specific benefit of those that provoked said breakdown. 218. The Constitutional Court of Peru, in the case of Santiago Martín Rivas, in resolving an extraordinary remedy and a remedy of violations to constitutional rights, discussed the scope of the State’s obligations and the nullity of amnesty laws: 272 [T]he Constitutional Tribunal considers that the obligation of States to investigate the facts and punish those responsible for the violation of human rights declared in the Judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights includes not only the nullity of those processes where the amnesty laws […] had been applied, after the declaration that such laws had no legal effect, but also any practice intended to prevent the investigation and punishment for 273 violations of the rights to life and personal integrity. The obligations assumed by the Peruvian government with the ratification of treaties on human rights include the duty to guarantee those rights, in accordance with International Law, are irrevocable and for which the State is internationally obligated to sanction said involvement. In response to the mandate contained in […] the Constitutional Procedural Code, treaties are sought which have crystallized the absolute prohibition of those who have committed unlawful acts, and pursuant to International Law can not be granted amnesty, as this would be contrary to the standards of minimum protection to the dignity 274 of the human person.                                                          268 Supreme Court of Justice of Chile, Case of Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco for the crime of aggravated kidnapping, Rol No. 47.205, Remedy No. 3302/2009, Resolution 16698, Appeals Judgment, and Resolution 16699, Replacement Judgment, of May 18, 2010. 269 Supreme Court of Justice of Chile, Case of Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco, Replacement Judgment, supra note 268, Considering clause 1. 270 Supreme Court of Justice of Chile, Case of Claudio Abdón Lecaros, Replacement Judgment, supra note 268, Considering clause 2. 271 Supreme Court of Justice of Chile, Case of Claudio Abdón Lecaros Carrasco, Replacement Judgment, supra note 268, Considering clause 3. 272 Cf. Constitutional Tribunal of Peru, Case of Santiago Martín Rivas, Extraordinary Remedy, Case file No. 4587-2004-AA/TC, Judgment of November 29, 2005, para. 63. 273 Constitutional Tribunal of Peru, Case of Santiago Martín Rivas, Extraordinary Remedy, supra note 272, para. 63. 274 Constitutional Tribunal of Peru, Case of Santiago Martín Rivas, Constitutional tort remedy, Case file No. 679-2005-PA/TC, Judgment of March 2, 2007, para. 30.