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This chapter examines how Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile fared with truth and justice policies after the transition from authoritarian rule, looking at the issue from an institutional and political angle, and at the social politics of memory. Efforts to deal with the past and their significance in the overall politics of transition to democracy are shaped by country-specific historical conditions and developments: the nature and legacies of repression and authoritarian rule; and the nature of the transition process and the various political, institutional and legal factors conditioning the post-transitional period, among which are the nature of repression, the presence and strength of a human rights movement, inherited legal or constitutional limitations, relations between political parties and Human Rights Organizations (HROs), the degree of executive or party commitment to policies of truth and justice, the unity of democratic parties, the ability of the military to mobilise against any policies of accountability as well as their relations with the democratic executive, the attitude of the judiciary to past violations, the presence of a strong legislative right, and the degree to which repression penetrated the social fabric. The way in which the first democratically elected authorities deal with the past, together with the relative strength of the human rights movement in the post-transitional period, sets the agenda for the subsequent evolution of the issue; more specifically, the past remains a source of open conflict if there are loopholes in official policies that preclude full closure or amnesty, and if transnational groups or regional and international human rights bodies challenge national policies favouring impunity. The past also remains a source of conflict if there are strong HROs that continue to contest official decisions on how to deal with the past, and have allies in the formal political arena or the courts. Official policies to deal with the past are not of themselves directly relevant to the process of democratisation, and what is more, during the first transitional period, truth and justice policies are unrelated to (or may even place obstacles in the way of) wider institutional reform; the reverse is also true, but whatever the case, the past becomes part of the dynamic of democratic politics. Indeed, although the continued pursuit of truth and justice and its links to wider reforms may be difficult to establish across the board, the politics of memory more widely conceived are important for a process of democratization in all four countries examined here, as it is about how a society interprets and appropriates its past, in an attempt to mould its future, and as such it is an integral part of any political process, including progress towards deeper democracy.

This chapter suggests a radical reorientation in understanding our response to crime. It calls for placing emphasis on the feelings we have in response to crime. Our response to crime must take its full circumstances into consideration and then decide how great a defection from a punitive response is possible without exciting the demons of impunity. Indeed, it is the justification of punitivity in each case, rather than the justification of the institution of punishment, that is the overriding moral challenge, and a challenge to be met not by theorists, but by those who dispose of the lives of others in response to a crime.

This chapter considers the growing relevance of prosecution in international law and outlines this historical development. With the increased emphasis on criminal matters, a critical question of contemporary international law concerns to which extend criminal prosecution is a necessary element of human rights protection. This issue is of high practical relevance considering the proclamation of amnesties, large scale impunity, and frequent flaws in criminal proceedings worldwide. The chapter looks at these phenomena and specifies the relevant legal issues. It also describes the methodology and course of analysis of the book.

This chapter explores dimensions of identity conflicts in Africa and dilemmas of external intervention in such conflicts. Poverty is key to understanding conflict in the region, but in the context of weak development class and ethnicity are often conflated, and mobilization around ethnic markers offers the greatest utility in organizing groups to compete for resources. The potential for violence is related to such variables as the degree of heterogeneity in a society; high-frustration/high-threat scenarios; a history of violence in intergroup relations; the evolution of cultures of impunity; and leadership choices in mobilizing societal groups. External parties face dilemmas in the legalities of intervention in intrastate conflicts; in coordinating action among themselves; in achieving legitimacy with those directly and indirectly involved in the conflict; in resourcing or championing various types of intervention; in the timing of interventions; in assisting parties in conflict to design social and political systems to reduce and more effectively manage identity conflicts; and in dealing with those parties that are more interested in perpetuating a conflict than in resolving it. Many African conflicts demand a systemic, developmentally oriented approach with long-term vision and carefully designed systems of justice and reconciliation with grassroots resonance if a sustainable peace is to be achieved and levels of violence reduced.

This chapter briefly reviews the history of Indian law and describes the complicated matrix of criminal jurisdiction in Indian country. From a perspective that privileges tribal sovereignty, it explains how mechanical intrusions into the realm of tribal authority and the resulting jurisdictional complexity has created real, practical gaps in the formal systems of justice, gaps that have allowed perpetrators to assault Native women with impunity. This chapter looks at how jurisdiction over criminal matters in regards to Native American has been switched between the Federal and state level. Neither of which succeeding in protecting Native women against violence.

Cooperation is an important aspect of the International Criminal Court's (ICC) task: ‘to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators’ of ‘the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole’. Because these crimes ‘threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world’, the ICC must necessarily have the support and assistance of as many states as possible. One of the ways to achieve the ICC's goal of ending impunity is to obtain greater cooperation from both state parties and non-party states. In the absence of police power, cooperation from states — in executing arrest warrants, in seizing and transferring evidence, and in logistics and the relocation of witnesses — is really the lifeline of international criminal tribunals. This chapter focuses on cooperation by states. It begins discussing what obligations states have to cooperate with the ICC, and then turns briefly to examining how states are living up to that duty in practice.

Although the Indian Constitution protects the rights to life, personal liberty, and freedom from basic human rights violations, widespread impunity exists for police, security, and other government officials who commit such violations. Indeed, impunity is the quintessential civil rights issue facing India today. This chapter explores the problem of official immunity and sovereign immunity in India, the failures of Supreme Court jurisprudence to create an effective remedy in tort or public law adjudication for compensation to victims of constitutional rights violations, and how the current system of impunity not only perpetuates human rights abuses but is also contrary to international human rights standards. It also discusses official immunity and prosecution under Indian law, immunity in the Criminal Procedure Code, and immunity in national security and counter-insurgency as well as counter-terrorism laws.

In Thailand, reformers have faced significant obstacles to reforming the country’s mixed system of government-controlled broadcast media and private print sector; difficulties include the extreme polarization of Thai society since the 2006 coup d’etat, inconsistencies between constitutional provisions and the organic laws intended to operationalize them, and the increasingly problematic use of lèse-majesté provisions to censor political dissent. In Burma/Myanmar, rapid changes have provoked a reshuffling and realignment of the internal and returning elements of the exile media as plans are developing for public, commercial, and community media sectors. In addition to protecting press freedoms, reform efforts include changing the long held culture of secrecy and attitudes toward information, encouraging government officials to provide information and accept critique, and including grassroots perspectives and especially ethnic minority voices in the media. The Philippines, although considered one of the freest media environments in the region, remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to practice journalism; reformers in this context have focused on countering the culture of impunity, especially in the killings of journalists in rural areas of the country, promoting transparenc, and ensuring the proper implementation of existing laws.

The expansion of the global constitutional principle of no-impunity and its application to serious violations of social and economic rights are part of the process of constitutionalization of global law and its principles through jurisprudential cross-fertilization. The author identifies in the ECJ’s innovative approach to serious tax frauds in the Taricco judgment an opportunity to develop a judicial dialogue between international and national courts aimed at strengthening the paradigm of the no-impunity-imprescriptibility of the new criminal jurisdiction centered on the International Criminal Court (ICC). As announced in the Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritisation (PCSP), the ICC will now expand its focus on prosecuting with national governments such serious crimes as “financial crimes”. The ICC is not formally extending its jurisdiction to these cases, but this process has begun—based on the Rome Statute that recognizes that serious international crimes “threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world”.

The epilogue explores the effects and ravages of the “Dirty War” that continue to haunt Guerrero some forty years after soldiers killed Lucio Cabañas. For many in contemporary Guerrero, the episodes and events described in this book represent not history but the fears and sadness that contour their everyday lives. The hundreds of guerrerenses that the Mexican military “disappeared” during the 1970s—and the impunity enjoyed by both military and political officials—continue to haunt the state as unredeemed specters that demand justice. This chapter examines how the Dirty War directly affected peasant families and communities in Cold War Guerrero and surveys their efforts to obtain information regarding disappeared loved ones.

This chapter focuses on the more sinister side of the outsourced state under PFI that was clearly present in the Grenfell disaster – the ‘accountability vacuum’. It draws on interviews with public and private sector professionals, residents involved in PFI schemes, and whistle-blowers, to illuminate specific examples of this deficit. A first section focuses on the lack of public or regulatory scrutiny of PFI contracts that reply on self-certified performance reporting, akin to paying a fox to guard the hen house. A second section explains how poorly-written contracts that set largely meaningless Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) result in minimal financial penalties despite demonstrable failings. A third section shows how local authorities’ prioritise the protection of long-term partnerships with private companies over genuine resident involvement and empowerment. A fourth section describes how resident disempowerment is compounded by the absence of both genuinely independent and powerful regulatory bodies, as well as legal routes that residents could use to get redress. It provides a number of examples of how those who did speak out were routinely ignored and sometimes actively silenced.

The introduction frames the central themes of the book. It examines the historiography on modern Mexico and violence, and it presents the construction of the country’s reputation as a place of violence and impunity.

This chapter discusses some of the long-standing social and political impacts of the torture of prisoners in Iraq by Coalition forces, and reflects on the consequences of the culture of silence and impunity that has typified torture in the so-called War on Terror. More specifically, it explores the culture of silence and non-disclosure that has led to further human rights abuses globally, including the exportation of torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison to different parts of the world, the increased public acceptance of torture in countries such as the United States and Australia, and the marginalisation and vilification of certain groups within the global community. Finally, the chapter explores the importance of acknowledgement, transparency, and accountability in relation to torture and for the broader promotion and protection of human rights, and the achievement of long-standing peace in the region.