The Argentine Path to Justice: Amnesties and Trials for Human Rights Violations?

GABRIEL PEREIRA; PAR ENGSTROM

Amnesty in the Age of Accountability

Cambridge University Press

Año: 2011; p. 97 - 123

This chapter accounts for the political and judicial processes of accountability that led to the overturning of Argentina?s amnesties and the reopening of trials for human rights violations committed by the military regime that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. It locates these processes in the broader context of transitional justice in Argentina and examines the role of the main actors involved. The chapter also identifies the key factors that explain the Argentine pathway to accountability and evaluates the extent of Argentina?s uniqueness as the first country in Latin America to overturn domestic legislation shielding perpetrators of grave human rights crimes from prosecution. Looking beyond the region of Latin America, the Argentine transitional justice experience is important since the country has had to struggle with the moral and political dilemmas of justice and order in the context of rapid and uncertain political change, well before the establishment of transitional justice as a distinct academic discipline and field of policy expertise. Moreover, Argentina?s processes have been viewed in the transitional justice literature as an example to be either emulated or avoided. As such, it is important to draw the appropriate conclusions on the basis of a sound understanding of the Argentine experience before evaluating the likelihood and appropriateness of other societies following a similar pathway to accountability.