By Megan
Abbot
Police in El
Salvador have begun to arrest former military officers accused in the killing
of six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war. The murders of the Jesuits occurred in 1989,
and it is presumed that the priests were killed by the regime as they attempted
to broker a peace agreement that might have been too sympathetic to the
guerillas. Since 1989, an amnesty had
prevented domestic prosecutions, but families of the victims now seek justice
in Spain through their law of universal jurisdiction, since five of the priests
were Spanish. Elisabeth Malkin reports for the New York
Times that after the US
extradited one of the accused to Spain, police in El Salvador have undertaken
raids to arrest several of the others accused.
By Megan
Abbot
The Sepur Zarco
case, named after a military base in which widespread human rights abuses
occurred against the civilian population, charges Lieutenant Colonel Esteelmer
Reyes Giron, former commander of the base, and former military commissioner
Heriberto Valdez Asig for their leadership of crimes of mass sexual violence
and slavery. The prosecutor is charging
these crimes as violations of international humanitarian law, and thus as war
crimes. Jo-Marie Burt reports for the
International Justice Monitor
that it is the first time that the Guatemalan court has prosecuted a crime of
sexual violence from its decades-long civil war. It is the first time that any court of any
country is hearing crimes of sexual violence as crimes under international law.
By Cristina S. Sevilla*
Trafficking in
persons (TIP) has predominantly been tackled from a limiting criminal justice
perspective. The U.S. State Department’s annual TIP Report highlights trafficking-related
convictions in classifying countries under its tier system. The report’s
emphasis on rule of law indicators, rather than prevention and victim services,
impacts how countries focus their anti-trafficking resources. For example, over
time Thailand has increased its efforts targeting the prevention of human
trafficking, and therefore reduced its investigation, prosecution and
conviction efforts. However, this shift
to prevent exploitation resulted in a drop in the TIP report rankings, down to the lowest ranking of Tier 3. As another example, in its vigorous zeal to
achieve a better ranking, the Philippine government amended its
anti-trafficking law in
order to increase its number of convictions. The focus on convictions distorts
the point.
