and that something was forgiveness. (...) And so we see that without forgiveness there can be no future."27 28. In its judgment rendered in Arusha, on October 2, 1998, in the case of Prosecutor versus Akayesu,28 the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Trial Chamber) stated that the accused (Mr. J.-P Akayesu), sentenced to prison by the Tribunal (para. 3), despite having accepted responsibility for the acts only by omission (for failure to comply with the duty to protect the people of Taba) insisted, however, on: "publicly expressing sympathy for all the victims of the tragic events which took place in Rwanda, be they Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa. He asked for the forgiveness of the people of Rwanda in general and specifically of the people of the Taba commune (...)" (para. 2) 5. Conclusion 29. The universal legal conscience —that I consider— as stressed in many of my opinions in this Court and in my briefs— the ultimate material source of all Law, seems to be awakening, across the world, toward the acknowledgment of the importance of the quest for forgiveness. The events occurred in the proceedings before this Court, in the instant case of Gutierrez Soler versus Colombia, are good examples of this encouraging line of evolution. 30. The same holds true for the successive cases of acknowledgment of international liability made by the relevant respondent governments throughout the history of this Court. Such cases total 15, including the instant case,29 (some with more than one judgment), which accounts for 28% of the cases disposed of by this Court to date. This percentage is without parallel in the practice of today’s international courts. I feel truly privileged to have had the opportunity to participate in the adjudication of all these cases, —since the first one, the Judgment dated December 4, 1991, rendered in the case of Aloeboetoe versus Suriname,— and to closely follow this promising awareness-raising process on the part of the States regarding their duty to protect all individuals within their respective jurisdictions. 31. I would like to end this Separate Opinion by making a reference to a masterly book (of the kind that is no longer written in this new age of information technology), entitled Le problème du mal - l'histoire (1948), in which its brilliant author, R.P. Sertillanges, rightly pointed out that positivist philosophy, denying immortality and insensitive to values, simply lost awareness of the problem of evil.30 The awakening of the universal legal conscience seeks, in my view, to bury the indifference of positivist myopia, —always conniving with power, and subservient to it, even when exercised in gross violation of the basic rights inherent to the human person. . Ibid., p. 3. . Case no. ICTR/96-4-T. 27 28 29 Cases of Aloeboetoe, El Amparo, Caracazo, Barrios Altos, Benavides Cevallos, Garrido and Baigorria, Carpio Nicolle et al., Trujillo Oroza, Bulacio, Molina Theissen, Myrna Mack, the Plan de Sánchez Massacre, Huilca Tecse, the Mapiripán Massacre and Gutierrez Soler. . R.P. Sertillanges, Le problème du mal - l'histoire, Paris, Aubier, 1948, p. 292, and, for the importance of values, cf. pp. 395-397. 30