Critics say the law would stall the pursuit of the truth regarding victims of Peru’s three-decade armed conflict. Victims’ lawyers have promised to go to international forums seeking to invalidate a law approved by Peru’s Congress last week that would provide amnesty to prosecuted military and police officers, and other security forces.
“We’re not only going to the domestic arena to seek its invalidation, but we’ve already taken some action at the international level,” lawyer Gloria Cano, director of the Pro Human Rights Association, said during a news conference on Thursday.
A congressional committee on Wednesday endorsed the bill amnestying members of the armed forces, national police and local self-defence committees, legislator Alejandro Cavero, third vice president of the country’s Congress, said. Cano also stated her association had already notified the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and intended to proceed to the United Nations, as well.
Once passed by the Peruvian Congress, Volker Turk, the UN national human rights coordinator, tweeted on X that “impunity does not hide the crime, it magnifies it. Amnesty International previously called on the legislature to stand with the victims and reject the bill. “The right to justice of thousands of victims of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, torture, and sexual violence would be violated,” the rights organization wrote on X.
A group of Peruvian human rights groups stated the new legislation may erase 156 convictions and another 600 cases which are under prosecution. The bill, pending the signature of President Dina Boluarte, favors uniformed personnel who were charged, remain under investigation or are on trial for offenses committed because of their involvement in the nation’s internal conflict from 1980 to 2000 against leftist guerrillas. Boluarte has remained silent on the amnesty, even prior to its approval.
The bill was introduced by Congressman Fernando Rospigliosi, member of the right-wing Popular Force party of Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the late former president Alberto Fujimori.
