Furthering the fight against impunity in Latin America: the contributions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to domestic accountability processes

This dissertation is inspired by the question how national authorities can be motivated to advance the fight against impunity by investigating and prosecuting those responsible for mass atrocities through their domestic justice systems. Whereas international scholarship has often sought to answer such questions by looking at international criminal courts, this study proposes instead to turn our gaze towards the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.Since the days of the Cold War, the Inter-American human rights system has been an important ally for victims and civil society groups pushing their governments to recognize and investigate serious and systemic violations of human rights and bring the perpetrators to justice. It has thus been involved in the fight against impunity for decades.This dissertation examines both the legal doctrines developed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to further the fight against impunity and the practical contributions of those doctrines to domestic accountability processes in Latin America. It argues that the Inter-American system has made important contributions to several aspects of domestic accountability processes. However, in order to understand these contributions, we have to step outside the compliance framework often employed in legal scholarship to the study of international courts. Exploring the Frontiers of International La

Feitenvaststelling en belangenbehartiging bij de compensatie van slachtoffers van geweld. Een studie naar het bewijsrecht als rechtspolitiek middel

Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a pluralist worl

Het recht op leven in de Nederlandse Grondwet. Een verkennend onderzoek

The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of Law & Governance in a World of Multilevel Jurisdiction

The Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Smoking Among Socioeconomic Groups in Nine European Countries, 1990-2007

Background: It is uncertain whether tobacco control policies have contributed to a narrowing or widening of socioeconomic inequalities in smoking in European countries during the past two decades. This paper aims to investigate the impact of price and non-price related population-wide tobacco control policies on smoking by socioeconomic group in nine European countries between 1990 and 2007. Methods: Individual-level education, occupation and smoking status were obtained from nationally representative surveys. Country-level price-related tobacco control policies were measured by the relative price of cheapest cigarettes and of cigarettes in the most popular price category. Country-level non-price policies were measured by a summary score covering four policy domains: smoking bans or restrictions in public places and workplaces, bans on advertising and promotion, health warning labels, and cessation services. The associations between policies and smoking were explored using logistic regressions, stratified by education and occupation, and adjusted for age, Gross Domestic Product, period and country fixed effects. Results: The price of popular cigarettes and non-price policies were negatively associated with smoking among men. The price of the cheapest cigarettes was negatively associated with smoking among women. While these favorable effects were generally in the same direction for all socioeconomic groups, they were larger and statistically significant in lower socioeconomic groups only. Conclusions: Tobacco control policies as implemented in nine European countries, have probably helped to reduce the prevalence of smoking in the total population, particularly in lower socioeconomic groups. Widening inequalities in smoking may be explained by other factors. Policies with larger effects on lower socioeconomic groups are needed to reverse this trend. Implications: Socioeconomic inequalities in smoking widened between the 1990s and the 2000s in Europe. During the same period, there were intensified tobacco control policies in many European countries. It is uncertain whether tobacco control policies have contributed to a narrowing or widening of socioeconomic inequalities in smoking in European countries. This study shows that tobacco control policies as implemented in the available European countries have helped to reduce the prevalence of smoking in the total population, particularly in lower socioeconomic groups. Widening inequalities in smoking may be explained by other factors.Peer reviewe

Behavioral genetics of temperament and frontal asymmetry in early childhood

Temperament has been suggested to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The current study examined genetic shared environmental and unique environmental factors accounting for variation in Fear, Effortful Control (EC), and Frontal Asymmetry (FA) in 4- to 6-year-old children using bivariate behavioral genetic modeling. We included a total of 214 same-sex twin pairs: 127 monozygotic (MZ) and 87 dizygotic (DZ) pairs. FA was measured during a rest electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, and Fear and EC were measured using parent report. Results show that differences between twins were best explained by genetic factors (about a quarter of the variance) and unique environmental factors (about three quarters of the variance). However, the cross-trait, within-twin correlations were not significant, implying no overlapping genetic or environmental factors on Fear and EC or on Fear and FA. Future research should try to elucidate the large role of unique environmental factors in explaining variance in these temperament-related traits

¿Se encuentran protegidas las esposas o compañeras menores de 15 años de los miembros de las partes en un conflicto armado no internacional frente a la violencia sexual ejercida por sus propias parejas o por otros miembros del grupo al que pertenecen?

La protección general atribuida en los conflictos armados no internacionales por el artículo 3 común a la población civil, de la que las niñas menores de 15 años forman parte, no depende de su filiación con alguna de las partes en el conflicto, y se extiende, en principio, a todos los actos de violencia, entre los que se encuentran los de naturaleza sexual cometidos por cualquiera de las mismas, incluyendo aquellos cometidos por los miembros de la parte en el conflicto con la que se encuentren afiliadas. Los casos contra Thomas Lubanga y Bosco Ntaganda muestran que, como regla general, las niñas menores de 15 años no desarrollan de manera prolongada actividades de participación directa en las hostilidades, por lo que, a pesar de acompañar permanente al grupo y de ser “esposas” o “compañeras” de sus comandantes, no asumen una función continua de combate y no pueden ser consideradas como miembros del mismo. Además, los actos de naturaleza sexual coercitivamente desarrollados por las niñas menores de 15 años reclutadas por las FPLC en favor de los comandantes y miembros del grupo con las que se encuentran esposadas, no cumple ninguno de los tres requisitos exigidos por el concepto de participación directa en las hostilidades porque: (a) no son idóneos para causar directamente por sí mismos el umbral de daño requerido; (b) no forman parte integral de ninguna operación militar que pudiera generar dicho umbral de daño; y (c) no poseen el nexo beligerante requerido, puesto que no están específicamente diseñados para causar un menoscabo a la parte adversa de las FLPC. Tampoco las demás actividades desarrolladas por las niñas menores de 15 años alistadas o reclutadas por las FLPC, incluyendo trabajo doméstico (donde principalmente desempeñaron tareas culinarias), transporte de comida a bases aéreas y acompañamiento a las esposas de los comandantes, cumplen, según la Sala de Primera Instancia I en el caso Lubanga, con los tres requisitos necesarios para su consideración como participación directa en las hostilidades. De ahí, que las niñas no hayan perdido en ningún momento su protección general. A todo lo anterior hay que añadir que los niños y niñas menores de 15 años, al ser una población particularmente vulnerable, gozan de una especial protección durante los conflictos armados (con independencia de su naturaleza), tal y como se manifiesta en la Convención de los Derechos del Niño de 1989, los Convenios de Ginebra de 1949 y de sus Protocolos adicionales de 1977, el Estatuto de la Corte Penal Internacional de 1998 y las Resoluciones 1882 de 2009, 1960 de 2010 y 2106 de 2013 del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas. Esta protección especial se extiende a los actos de violencia sexual cometidos por los miembros de las fuerzas armadas nacionales o grupos armados organizados que los alistan o reclutan. En consecuencia, la protección general y especial a que son acreedoras las niñas menores de 15 años, no se limita a las agresiones provenientes de las partes adversas en el conflicto, sino que se extiende también a la violencia sexual ejercida contra ellas por los miembros del propio grupo que las alistó o reclutó, incluso en el caso de que ésta sea ejercida por los comandantes que las tomaron como esposas o compañeras. Las niñas menores de 15 años alistadas o reclutadas entre 2002 y 2003 por las FPLC de Thomas Lubanga y Bosco Ntaganda eran sin duda acreedoras de dicha protección.The general protection provided for in non international armed conflicts to the civilian population (girls under the age of 15 are part of such civilian population) by common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, does not depend on any affiliation with any of the parties to the conflict. Such protection extends, in principle, to all acts of violence, including those of sexual nature committed by members of the party to the conflict with which the victims (girls under the age of 15) are affiliated. The cases against Thomas Lubanga and Bosco Ntaganda show that, as a general rule, girls under the age of 15 do not carry outactivities of direct participation in hostilities for an extended time. As a result, despite joining organized armed groups as wivesn or partners of the commanders of the groups, they don‟t assume a continuous combat function and cannot be considered members of the group, as such. The Lubanga and Ntaganda cases also show that those acts of sexual nature coercively undertaken by girls under the age of 15 (usually with those commanders and group members who married them),do not meet any of the three requirements embodied in the notion of direct participation in hostilities because: (a) such sexual acts are not suitable to directly cause the required level of damage; (b) they do not form an integral part of any military operation that might cause such damage; and (c) they do not possess any belligerent nexus, since they are not specifically directed at causing a prejudice to the adverse parties. Moreover, according to Trial Chamber I in the Lubanga case, other activities carried out by those girls under the age of 15 enlisted (or recruited) by the FLPC - including domestic work (such as cleaning and culinary tasks), transportation of food to military bases, and escorting the wives of the FPLC commanders -, do not meet with the abovementioned requirements of the notion of direct participation in hostilities. As a result, such girls do not participate directly in the hostitilities and do not lose at any time their protection under common article 3. Children under the age of 15 are a particularly vulnerable population. As a result, they have a special protection during armed conflicts (regardless of their international o noninternational nature). This special protection is provided for in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of Children, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, the 1998 ICC Statute, and UN Security Council Resolutions 1882 (2009), 1960 (2010) and 2106 (2013). This special protection also covers those acts of sexual violence committed against girls under the age of 15 by commanders or members of national armed forces or organized armed groups that enlist or recruit them. In conclusion, general and special protections, which girls under the age of 15 are entitled to, extends to sexual violence against those commanders or members of the group that enlisted or recruited them. This is so even if such violence is carried out by those who took them as wives or partners. Girls under the age of 15 enlisted (or recruited) between 2002 and 2003 by the FPLC of Thomas Lubanga and Bosco Ntaganda were undoubtedly entitled to such general and special protections