ICIP WORKING PAPERS: 2010/02 Inter-American Court, Crimes Against Humanity and Peacebuilding in South America Joan Sánchez Inter-American Court, Crimes Against Humanity and Peacebuilding in South America Joan Sánchez Institut Català Internacional per la Pau Barcelona, May 2010 Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 658, baixos 08010 Barcelona (Spain) T. +34 93 554 42 70 | F. +34 93 554 42 80
[email protected] | http:// www.icip.cat Editors Javier Alcalde and Rafael Grasa Editorial Board Pablo Aguiar, Alfons Barceló, Catherine Charrett, Gema Collantes, Caterina Garcia, Abel Escribà, Vicenç Fisas, Tica Font, Antoni Pigrau, Xavier Pons, Alejandro Pozo, Mònica Sabata, Jaume Saura, Antoni Segura and Josep Mar- ia Terricabras Translation David Viinikka Graphic Design Atona, sl Printing gama, sl ISSN 2013-5793 (online edition) 2013-5785 (paper edition) DL B-38.039-2009 © 2009 Institut Català Internacional per la Pau · All rights reserved T H E A U T H O R Joan Sánchez Montero is Doctor in Law by the Autonomous Universi- ty of Barcelona (UAB), Spain and qualified as a lawyer at the Catholic University of Táchira (UCAT) Venezuela. At this Institution she has worked as Research and Postgraduate Coordinator and as Undergrad- uate and Postgraduate Lecturer in penal law and international protec- tion of human rights. She currently lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. This article is based on her Doctoral Dissertation (2008) “The Ob- servance of the Principle of International Legality in the Progressive Development of Crims Against Humanity”, supervised by Dr. Claudia Jiménez Cortés (UAB). A b s tra c T The present work contains a general overview of the sentences of the In- ter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), which have recognised that crimes against humanity are pre-existing in customary law, and do not prescribe, nor can they be subject to amnesty or pardon.