Introduction

By Garzón

About Garzón

Connections

Schedule

Presented by

Pero mientras tanto no se puede permanecer inactivo en la lucha por los derechos humanos y frente a las violaciones masivas de los mismos. Delitos como el de genocidio, la tortura, el terrorismo o los crímenes de lesa humanidad merecen una respuesta no sólo política sino también y principalmente judicial en los ámbitos internacional y nacional. En éstos se han llevado a cao iniciativas interesantes en los últimos cinco años que merecen nuestro interés y estudio por cuanto suponen la aplicación de normas que existiendo nunca se habían activado.

Este camino no está exento de problemas no sólo jurídicos, sino también económicos, políticos y sociales, e incluso se ha argumentado que afecta al principio de soberanía. No obstante, el carácter transnacional de estos crímenes exige una redefinición de algunas cuestiones, tanto sustantivas como procesales que han quedado obsoletas.
(Baltasar Garzón, 8 de enero de 2001).

The Statute for the International Criminal Court was signed in 1998. This instrument constitutes the most serious effort to this date by the international community to fight against the most aberrant crimes human beings can endure and suffer.

The international configuration of these crimes logically demands measures of similar international dimension to make the instrumental condition of this statute credible and useful. Nevertheless, not all nations have displayed a genuine eagerness in the ratification of what will be a future norm. What are the possible reasons for such a delay? What are the difficulties that the future International Criminal Court will face?

While waiting for the ratification by all nations, it is clear that we cannot remain passive in the face of the systematic violations of human rights. Crimes such as genocide, torture, terrorism and crimes against humanity demand a genuine response that is not solely political, but mostly legal at the national and international levels. Some interesting initiatives have been taking place in the last five years at the national level that deserve our best attention and continuous study in so far as these efforts presuppose the application of norms that although in existence, were never activated.

This proactive stance is not exempt from legal problems that also inevitably ramify into larger economic, political and social problems. The transnational character of these aforementioned crimes will force all of us to seek the redefinition of substantive as well as procedural issues that may have become obsolete.

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(English translation by Fernando Gómez
and Bernabé N. C. García, Jr.)

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