5.2.
Exploring Linkage Solutions Based on Case Studies 5.2.1.
Argentina’s De Facto Amnesty
Argentina adopted two laws that constituted a de facto amnesty. The Punto Final (“Full Stop”) law adopted in 1986 established a 60-day limit on the initiation of new criminal complaints related to Argentina’s “dirty war.”506 The Obediencia Debida (“Due Obedience”) law enacted in 1987 prevented most military officials from being prosecuted on the basis that they had been coerced into committed human rights abuses.507 These were later annulled. In assessing the validity of amnesty laws, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the Punto Final and Due Obedience Laws adopted by Argentina violated the American Convention on Human Rights.508 In 1989 and 1990, President Menem issued two pardons, one to a handful of officers who were still facing trials and another to those who had already been convicted. This was a blow for victims and their families, and foreclosed many options to continue pursuing justice for past crimes.509 The combination of this pardon and the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws had an important impact. No new case could be filed against person suspected of crimes committed during the “Dirty War,” except for the excluded crimes indicated above; all persons but former top commanders were protected from prosecution, and former officers, who could not benefit from the Due Obedience law and who had been tried and convicted, had been issued pardons.”510 Civil society rejected the blanket amnesty and pardons justified to maintain the fragile civilian rule, and legal developments insisted upon justice for victims including holding perpetrators accountable. 5.2.2.
South Africa’s Amnesty
South Africa enacted an amnesty to incentivize former members of the Government to participate in its truth commission.511 For more than forty years, South Africans lived under apartheid, the official Government policy of segregation and oppression.512 The apartheid system heavily favored Caucasians, leaving those of other races and ethnicities with few rights, which included limits on where they could live.513 Moreover, during the apartheid era, police 506
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rule-of-Law Tools for Post-Conflict, 8. Ibid. 508 Ibid., 9. 509 Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Accountability in Argentina: 20 Years Later, Transitional Justice Maintains Momentum, Case Study (New York, NY: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2005), 2. 510 Human Rights Watch, Reluctant Partner: The Argentine Government's Failure to Back Trials of Human Rights Violators (n.p.: Human Rights Watch, 2006). 511 Elizabeth Ludwin King, "Amnesties in a Time of Transition," George Washington International Law Review 41 (January 1, 2010): 589 512 Ibid. 513 King, "Amnesties in a Time," 589. 507
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