CJA

Kiobel v. Shell: Supreme Court Limits Courts’ Ability to Hear Claims of Human Rights Abuses Committed Abroad

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a disappointing decision in Kiobel v. Shell, holding that the ATS does not provide an avenue for justice for Nigerian human rights victims who were harmed when Shell Oil assisted the Nigerian government in attacking them and their family members. Despite this, the splintered opinions by Justices Kennedy, Alito, and Thomas leave open the possibility that companies and individuals may still be liable for their abuses in cases with a stronger connection to the United States.

Guatemala: Las Víctimas del Genocidio

Guatemala juzga por primera vez en la historia el crimen de genocidio cometido durante el conflicto armado interno que asoló el país durante 36 años. Con la excusa de luchar contra la guerrilla, más de 200.000 personas, en su mayoría de origen maya, fueron masacradas entre 1960 y 1996 fruto de un minucioso plan elaborado por el ejército. Uno de los principales artífices de las matanzas, el ex presidente, el general Efraín Ríos Montt, está siendo finalmente juzgado por estos crímenes.

Guatemala’s First Female Attorney General Takes On Country’s Biggest Criminals

The first female Attorney General of Guatemala is taking on some of the country’s most powerful kingpins, past dictators and local crime bosses. She’s lowered the Central American nation’s high crime rate and brought justice for victims of the 36 year old civil war. Dr. Paz y Paz will be receiving the 2013 Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award at CJA’s 15th Anniversary Dinner.

Ríos Montt and Guatemala’s Genocide Trial

General Ríos Montt’s congressional term ended in January 2012. Two weeks later, he was indicted for genocide in his home country. Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war was one of the bloodiest and most vicious of modern times, pitting state security forces and their allies against leftist rebels. By the war’s end in 1996, and in a country one-fourth the size of California, more than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.

In Effort to Try Dictator, Guatemala Shows New Judicial Might

A judge had just ruled that the military dictator, Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, now 86, should stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity committed under his rule in the 1980s, a decision Mr. Utuy and other Maya survivors of Guatemala’s 34-year civil war had gathered in the courtroom to hear in person.