On October 16, 1998, London police arrested General Pinochet on a warrant from a Spanish judge for human rights crimes. In the ten years since, the world has become a smaller place for brutal despots.
John Laughland suggests that human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, are more concerned about the conviction of former heads of state than about them getting fair trials. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A casual visitor to the drab committee room in the British Parliament building where the fate of General Augusto Pinochet was decided during five weeks in 1998 and 1999 might have been excused for missing the case's historical significance. The law lords in business suits sat in front of robed and wigged barristers. Cartons of legal materials were piled high on chairs and tables. Most of the audience couldn't even see their lordships, much less understand their endless questioning about the finer points of British statutes and international conventions.
General Augusto Pinochet died without standing trial. But justice caught up with him in every other sense. Indeed, the "Pinochet precedent" has made the world a smaller place for the perpetrators of the worst atrocities.
Seven months after the United Nations General Assembly created a Human Rights Council to replace the much-maligned Commission on Human Rights, the new council already has garnered a level of condemnation that its predecessor took decades to achieve. While the council is in deep trouble, it can be saved if supporters of human rights exert leadership and mount an effective drive to win over moderate states from all regions of the world.
The decision by a Chilean appeal court on Friday to strip former dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity, in order to face a new trial for human rights atrocities, was as unexpected as it was welcome. The astonishment was palpable, when lawyers, journalists, and relatives who were awaiting the start of a quite separate human rights hearing first heard the news. The white-haired judge, who had chaired the panel responsible for the decision, was greeted with applause as he walked past. As is from nowhere, demonstrators appeared outside the building. The hallways were filled with jubilant cheers.
"International justice" is already beginning to be a plausible backstop when national justice fails or a perpetrator flees. In Sierra Leone and Cambodia, the UN is preparing to sponsor tribunals together with local authorities. Former dictator of Chad Hissène Habré was arrested on torture charges last year in his Senegalese exile. (The Senegalese Court of Final Appeals ruled in March that he could not be tried there, but human rights groups are now seeking his extradition to stand trial in Belgium.) The Mexican government has agreed to extradite to Spain an Argentine naval officer accused by Judge Baltasar Garzón of torture.
Returning home after a year's absence, I am astonished at the change. On the eve of the anniversary of the arrest last Oct. 16 of Augusto Pinochet, Chilean democracy has weathered the storm.
On October 16, 1998, London police arrested General Pinochet on a warrant from a Spanish judge for human rights crimes. In the ten years since, the world has become a smaller place for brutal despots.
John Laughland suggests that human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, are more concerned about the conviction of former heads of state than about them getting fair trials. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A casual visitor to the drab committee room in the British Parliament building where the fate of General Augusto Pinochet was decided during five weeks in 1998 and 1999 might have been excused for missing the case's historical significance. The law lords in business suits sat in front of robed and wigged barristers. Cartons of legal materials were piled high on chairs and tables. Most of the audience couldn't even see their lordships, much less understand their endless questioning about the finer points of British statutes and international conventions.
General Augusto Pinochet died without standing trial. But justice caught up with him in every other sense. Indeed, the "Pinochet precedent" has made the world a smaller place for the perpetrators of the worst atrocities.
Seven months after the United Nations General Assembly created a Human Rights Council to replace the much-maligned Commission on Human Rights, the new council already has garnered a level of condemnation that its predecessor took decades to achieve. While the council is in deep trouble, it can be saved if supporters of human rights exert leadership and mount an effective drive to win over moderate states from all regions of the world.
The decision by a Chilean appeal court on Friday to strip former dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity, in order to face a new trial for human rights atrocities, was as unexpected as it was welcome. The astonishment was palpable, when lawyers, journalists, and relatives who were awaiting the start of a quite separate human rights hearing first heard the news. The white-haired judge, who had chaired the panel responsible for the decision, was greeted with applause as he walked past. As is from nowhere, demonstrators appeared outside the building. The hallways were filled with jubilant cheers.
"International justice" is already beginning to be a plausible backstop when national justice fails or a perpetrator flees. In Sierra Leone and Cambodia, the UN is preparing to sponsor tribunals together with local authorities. Former dictator of Chad Hissène Habré was arrested on torture charges last year in his Senegalese exile. (The Senegalese Court of Final Appeals ruled in March that he could not be tried there, but human rights groups are now seeking his extradition to stand trial in Belgium.) The Mexican government has agreed to extradite to Spain an Argentine naval officer accused by Judge Baltasar Garzón of torture.
Returning home after a year's absence, I am astonished at the change. On the eve of the anniversary of the arrest last Oct. 16 of Augusto Pinochet, Chilean democracy has weathered the storm.
In the year since the arrest of Augusto Pinochet, the world has become a smaller place for people who are accused of committing atrocities.