The Judicialization of Human Rights Violations in Peru 1980-2000

During the years of political violence in Peru, various subversive and counter-subversive strategies were developed, all of which violated the fundamental rights of individuals. These practices produced 30,000 deaths, more than 6,000 disappearances, thousands of displaced persons, and material losses exceeding 21 billion dollars. Those perpetrated by agents of the State were carried out with the complicity or permissiveness of the State, which did not sanction or prosecute them but, on the contrary, protected them with a cloak of impunity. Likewise, both the judiciary and the Ministerio Público were incapable of reacting to this situation and on many occasions appeared as obstacles to justice or instruments of impunity. In June 1995, the amnesty laws — Laws 26479 and 26492 — were enacted, enshrining the human rights violations committed by members of the armed forces and the national police. In repeated reports, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OEA mentioned the violations of the Inter-American Charter of Human Rights contained in these laws and recommended that the Peruvian State render them null and void: on November 3, 2000, in its final observations, the Commission "again recommends the review and revocation of said Amnesty Laws which contribute to creating an atmosphere of impunity." (Excerpt from the foreword).