City Bar Condemns Peruvian Congress’s Passage of Statute of Limitations for Crimes Against Humanity and Urges the President of Peru to Veto the Bill

The New York City Bar Association, in a statement, “expresses profound concern over the Peruvian State’s blatant defiance of international human rights law principles and willingness to open the door to a law that would offer widespread protection to perpetrators of crimes against humanity.” 

The bill, if passed, would be “effectively ensuring impunity for atrocities that occurred during Alberto Fujimori’s presidency and Peru’s internal armed conflict,” the statement says. 

“The Peruvian Congress has approved this bill in contravention of basic tenets of international humanitarian law” and “would directly contradict the American Convention on Human Rights and numerous human rights treaties to which Peru is a signatory,” according to the statement. 

Via this statement, “the New York City Bar Association joins the urgent calls of civil society groups around the world in strongly urging the Government of Peru to:  

1. Closely reexamine the repercussions of a law that would offer blanket immunity to numerous perpetrators of crimes against humanity and which directly contravenes principles of jus cogens, customary international law, the American Convention on Human Rights, and Article 29 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which specifies that crimes against humanity are not subject to any statute of limitations and may therefore be prosecuted at any point after the alleged crime has occurred, among numerous other human rights treaties;
2. Prioritize access to justice for victims of the internal armed conflict and, particularly, those who suffered atrocity crimes during the Fujimori regime; and 
3. Comply with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ decisions and provisional measures in the Case of Barrios Altos and Case of La Cantuta v. Peru and recognize the jurisdiction of the [Inter-American Court of Human Rights] in both cases and over matters of international human rights law.” 

Read the statement here: https://bit.ly/3XfDnLZ