In 1999, the Fujimori Congress, at the request of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, approved a law that withdrew Peru from the Inter-American Court. However, after the fall of the regime, this rule was repealed.
The congressman and spokesperson for Popular Renewal, Jorge Montoyaasked the president Dina Boluarte the withdrawal of the Peruvian State from the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. For this, he reminded him that the former dictator Alberto Fujimori tried to do so by dissatisfied with the judgments of the aforementioned Court, on human rights violationsduring the Fujimori dictatorship.
In the letter sent to Boluarte, Renovación Popular says that national sovereignty “cannot be subject to the whim of a foreign entity.” He even affirms without evidence that the members of the IHR Court they are “appointed through obscure procedures managed by left-wing NGOs.”
The members of the aforementioned supranational Court are elected by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States. States parties may propose up to three candidates, such is the case of the ex-chancellor Cesar Landawho was mentioned in January 2021 by the government of the former president Pedro Castillo.
“We maintain that the Peruvian justice system is normatively, operationally and functionally prepared to act with jurisdictional autonomy, being able to solve, within the national territory, all conflicts that arise with objectivity, impartiality, due process and legality, drawing on good practices, experience and comparative doctrine”, alleges Montoya.
“Likewise, our request to denounce the American Convention is motivated by the need to implement criminal policy measures, such as the implementation of the death penalty in the Peruvian criminal system, for cases of serious crimes such as assassination, rape of minors, and terrorism. ; given the severe criminal emergency problems that have affected our society in the last decade, the adoption of extreme measures in accordance with these dangerous circumstances is essential, ”he adds.
Fujimori’s attempt to get out of the Inter-American Court
In his writing, Jorge Montoya highlights the attempt of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori to withdraw the Peruvian State from the jurisdiction of the IHR Court considering it an “important precedent”.
Even Montoya affirms that the exit “did not come to fruition due to lack of knowledge, skill and international political pressure against the political and legal operators of the time.”
The parliamentarian completely omits the Legislative Resolution 27152which approved the withdrawal of the contentious jurisdiction of the IHR Court. Said rule was approved by Congress on July 8, 1999 at the proposal of the Fujimori Fujimori regime.
The promulgation of said norm occurred in less than a week, in 3 days. The then Prime Minister Victor Way Rojas He sent the bill to Congress on July 5, 1999, and on July 8, the law was already enacted.
The excuse of the regime was the sentence on the case Petruzzi Castlewhich ordered the Peruvian State to annul the sentences of four Chilean civilians who were supposedly members of the terrorist group Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. The Court ruled that the military trials violated the Convention and ordered a new process in civil proceedings.
However, the real reason would have been regarding the sentences that were approaching that year: the demand of the former television entrepreneur baruch ivcherwho was stripped of his Peruvian nationality after Channel 2 broadcast reports on the acts of corruption of the Fujimori regime, and the case of the three former magistrates of the constitutional Court who were dismissed after voting against the application of the authentic interpretation law that enabled Fujimori to stand in the 2000 elections.
The IHR Court rejected the attempt of the Peruvian Government, with the endorsement of Congress, to withdraw from the contentious jurisdiction.
repealed law
After the fall of the regime fujimori, the Congress presided over by former president Valentín Paniagua, in the session of January 12, 2001; repealed the Legislative Resolution 27152 and fully restored the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court over the Peruvian State.
