Peru’s Congress approves law to impose statutes of limitations on crimes against humanity committed before 2002

Peru’s Congress on Thursday approved a law establishing a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed before 2002, a move that human rights organizations have warned will promote impunity and could benefit several figures such as former President Alberto Fujimori and retired military officers.

According to an estimate by the Peruvian prosecutor’s office released in June, the law will impact 550 victims and 600 cases, including investigations and judicial proceedings, which would have to be archived or concluded due to prescription, that is, because criminal liability would be extinguished by the passage of time.

The law has also been criticised by United Nations human rights experts, who said in late June that it “conflicts with the basic values ​​of the international community, fosters impunity and is in blatant contradiction with the rule of law.”

The law, which was approved in a first vote in June, is now in the hands of President Dina Boluarte, who can either sign it into law or return it with comments to Congress. Boluarte, who has not spoken to the press for nearly three months, has not made any public comments about her possible decision.

His prime minister, Gustavo Adrianzén, did, however, say to the press the day before that he was “absolutely outraged” by an order issued on Tuesday by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that asked the government, Congress and the judiciary not to adopt, annul or not give effect to the bill that became law on Thursday.

The initiative states that no one will be prosecuted, convicted or punished for crimes against humanity or war crimes committed before July 1, 2002.

In Peru, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force in July 2002, while the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity did so in November 2003. Both international treaties are binding.

Activists and human rights experts say the law would encourage impunity. A similar law passed during the government of President Alan Garcia (2006-2011) was declared unconstitutional a year later, in 2011, by the Constitutional Court.

The Institute for Democracy and Human Rights at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru said in a statement in June that the law “seeks to limit the application of domestic justice in cases of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed before 2002 through the figure of criminal prescription.”

He added that the interpretation proposed by Congress of the two international treaties “is legally incorrect as it directly contradicts the norms and principles of international law, which require the Peruvian State to avoid impunity and guarantee justice for the most serious crimes affecting humanity.”

According to the prosecution, the investigations or trials that would be affected by the law relate to massacres, torture, rape and forced disappearances – mainly of peasants and indigenous people in the Andes and the Amazon – in which dozens of members of the army and navy are accused.

The law would also impact an iconic case in Peru known as Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, in which former President Fujimori was sentenced from 2007 to 2023 for the murder of 25 Peruvians in 1992. Fujimori was released from prison in December when the government freed him to serve a controversial 2017 presidential pardon upheld by the Constitutional Court.

The prosecution also said the law would favor Fujimori in another active trial in which he is seeking to imprison him for 25 years for the murder of six peasants in 1992.

The law was promoted with the votes of the Fuerza Popular party, led by Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the former president (1990-2000). It was also supported by several parliamentarians who were military officers during the period of political violence between 1980 and 2000.

According to a truth commission, the victims of the internal conflict were mostly indigenous people who were caught up in the clashes between security forces and the terrorist group Shining Path. The commission estimates that the conflict left some 70,000 dead.

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