80
223. Likewise, the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia indicated that “the norms
related to [h]uman [r]ights form part of the great group of provisions of General
International Law, those of which are recognized as [j]us cogens norms, reason for
which, they are irrevocable, imperative […] and non-disposable.” 286 The Supreme
Court of Colombia recalled that the jurisprudence and recommendations of
international organisms on human rights must serve the preferential standards of
interpretation in both constitutional and ordinary justice and cited the jurisprudence
of this Court regarding the unacceptability of the amnesty provisions for cases of
serious human rights violations. 287
224. As follows from the previous paragraphs, all international bodies on human
rights protection and high domestic courts of the region who have had the
opportunity to rule on the scope of amnesty laws on serious violations of human
rights and their incompatibility with these States’ international obligations, have
concluded that the mentioned laws violate the States international duty to
investigate and sanction said violations.
F. Amnesty laws and the Jurisprudence of this Court.
225. This Court has established that “amnesty provisions, the statute of limitation
provisions, and the establishment of exclusions of responsibility that are intended to
prevent the investigation and punish those responsible for serious violations to
human rights such as torture, summary, extrajudicial, or arbitrary executions, and
enforced disappearance are not admissible, all of which are prohibited for
contravening irrevocable rights recognized by International Law of Human Rights.” 288
226. In this sense, amnesty laws are, in cases of serious violations of human
rights, expressly incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Pact of San José, given
that they violate the provisions of Articles 1(1) and 2, that is, in that they impede
the investigation and punishment of those responsible for serious human rights
violations and, consequently, impede access to victims and their families to the truth
of what happened and to the corresponding reparation, thereby hindering the full,
timely, and effective rule of justice in the relevant cases. This, in turn, favors
impunity and arbitrariness and also seriously affects the rule of law, reason for
which, in light of International Law, they have been declared to have no legal effect.
227. In particular, amnesty laws affect the international obligation of the State in
regard to the investigation and punishment of serious human rights violations
because they prevent the next of kin from being heard before a judge, pursuant to
that indicated in Article 8(1) of the American Convention, thereby violating the right
to judicial protection enshrined in Article 25 of the Convention precisely for the
failure to investigate, persecute, capture, prosecute, and punish those responsible
for the facts, thereby failing to comply with Article 1(1) of the Convention.
286
Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, Criminal Appeals Chamber. Case of of the Segovia
Massacre. Act number 156, of May 13, 2010, page 68.
287
Cf. Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia, Criminal Appeals Chamber. Case of of the Segovia
Massacre, supra note 248, pages. 69 and 71.
288
Cf. Case of Barrios Altos V Perú. Merits. Judgment of March 14, 2001. Series C No. 75, para. 41;
Case of The Dos Erres Massacre, supra note 127, para. 129, and Case of Gomes Lund et al. (Guerrilha do
Araguaia), supra note 16, para. 171.
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