Impunity is avoidance of punishment, loss, or other negative consequences for an action. In the

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a denial of the victims' right to

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

and

redress Redress is a setting right, as of injury, oppression, or wrong. Redress may refer to: * Redress of grievances or right to petition ** Redress of grievances in the United States * Legal redress * Redress (charitable organisation) * Redress Contro ...

. Impunity is especially common in countries that lack a tradition of the rule of law, suffer from

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

or that have entrenched systems of patronage, or where the

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

is weak or members of the security forces are protected by special

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...

s or immunities. Impunity is sometimes considered a form of denialism of historical crimes.

Examples

The

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

was fueled by impunity for the perpetrators of earlier massacres of Armenians, such as the 1890s Hamidian massacres. After the genocide, the Treaty of Sèvres required Turkey to allow the return of refugees and enable them to recover their properties. However, Turkey did not allow the return of refugees and nationalized all Armenian properties. A secret annex to the

Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (french: Traité de Lausanne) was a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–23 and signed in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially settled the conf ...

granted immunity to the perpetrators of the

and put an end to the

effort to prosecute Ottoman war criminals After World War I, the effort to prosecute Ottoman war criminals was taken up by the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Paris Peace Conference (1919) and ultimately included in the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman government ...

. Hardly anyone was prosecuted for the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians. According to historian Stefan Ihrig, the failure to intervene and hold perpetrators accountable made the genocide the "double original sin" of the twentieth century.

Human rights principles

The amended '' Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights Through Action to Combat Impunity'', submitted to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Commission on Human Rights on 8 February 2005, defines impunity as: The First Principle of that same document states that: Truth commissions are frequently established by nations emerging from periods marked by human rights violations – coups d'état, military dictatorships,

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

s, etc. – in order to cast light on the events of the past. While such mechanisms can assist in the ultimate prosecution of crimes and punishment of the guilty, they have often been criticised for perpetuating impunity by enabling violators to seek protection of concurrently adopted amnesty laws. The primary goal of the

Rome Statute The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998Michael P. Scharf (August 1998)''Results of the R ...

of the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individua ...

, adopted on 17 July 1998 and entered into force on 1 July 2002, is "to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators" .."of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole".

References

External links

International Center for Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice page
{{Authority control Human rights Punishment Legal terminology International law Legal immunity Impunity

Examples

Human rights principles

See also

References

External links