Amnesty in the Age of Human Rights Accountability
Comparative and International Perspectives

This edited volume discusses the persistence of amnesty in the age of human rights accountability.

Francesca Lessa (Edited by), Leigh A. Payne (Edited by)

9781107617339, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 May 2012

456 pages, 14 b/w illus. 4 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

"[This] book is a welcome contribution to the rapidly expanding field of transnational justice and to the menu of policy choice after gross violations of human rights."

-- D.P. Forsythe, emeritus, University of Nebraska, Reviewing for Choice Magazine

This edited volume brings together well-established and emerging scholars of transitional justice to discuss the persistence of amnesty in the age of human rights accountability. The volume attempts to reframe debates, moving beyond the limited approaches of 'truth versus justice' or 'stability versus accountability' in which many of these issues have been cast in the existing scholarship. The theoretical and empirical contributions in this book offer new ways of understanding and tackling the enduring persistence of amnesty in the age of accountability. In addition to cross-national studies, the volume encompasses eleven country cases of amnesty for past human rights violations: Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Uganda and Uruguay. The volume goes beyond merely describing these case studies, but also considers what we learn from them in terms of overcoming impunity and promoting accountability to contribute to improvements in human rights and democracy.

Part I. Theoretical Framework: 1. The age of accountability: the rise of individual criminal accountability Kathryn Sikkink
2. The amnesty controversy in international law Mark Freeman and Max Pensky
Part II. Comparative Case Studies: 3. Amnesties' challenge to the global accountability norm? Interpreting regional and international trends in amnesty enactment Louise Mallinder
4. From amnesty to accountability: the ebbs and flows in the search for justice in Argentina Gabriel Pereira and Par Engstrom
5. Barriers to justice: the Lley de Caducidad and impunity in Uruguay Francesca Lessa
6. Resistance to change: Brazil's persistent amnesty and its alternatives for truth and justice Marcelo Torelly and Paulo Abrão
7. De facto and de jure amnesty laws: the Central American case Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Emily Braid
8. Creeks of justice: debating post-atrocity accountability in Rwanda and Uganda Phil Clark
9. Accountability through conditional amnesty: the case of South Africa Antje du Bois-Pedain
10. De facto amnesty? The example of post-Soeharto Indonesia Patrick Burgess
11. A limited amnesty? Insights from Cambodia Ronald Slye
12. The Spanish amnesty law of 1977 in comparative perspective: from a law for democracy to a law for impunity Paloma Aguilar
13. Amnesty in the age of accountability Tricia D. Olsen, Leigh A. Payne and Andrew G. Reiter.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Law [L], International relations [JPS]