Archives

Bay Area survivors of Cambodia’s genocide are dismayed with Thursday’s death of a Khmer Rouge leader before he could face justice at the hands of an international tribunal for his role in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s.

Co-founder of the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Sary, died before a verdict was reached in the trial against him and two other senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). His death at the age of 87 serves as a wake-up call to the UN backed Tribunal, which has been riddled with delays since its inception.

CJA Legal Director Kathy Roberts discusses the Yousuf v. Samantar case.

For the first time in history a former head of state, Guatemala’s Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, is on trial for genocide in the country where the crime occurred. Two hundred thousand died over 36 years of armed conflict in the Central American nation, mostly Maya indigenous noncombatants at government hands. The unfolding judicial process has global repercussions, strengthening possibilities for prosecution of other prominent human rights cases.

A former El Salvador defense minister admitted responsibility for military abuses against civilians during his country’s civil war on Wednesday, saying he could not stop human rights violations because of divisions within the armed forces.

A former Central American general took the stand in his own defense at a deportation hearing on Tuesday, saying he did not commit or order any acts of torture or extrajudicial killings during El Salvador’s brutal civil war.

El juicio para la deportación del exministro de Defensa de El Salvador José Guillermo García Merino se retomó hoy al norte de Miami (EE.UU.) con tres sesiones previstas esta semana para la declaración de los testigos más importantes.

El próximo 19 de marzo Efraín Ríos Montt rendirá cuentas ante la justicia guatemalteca por actos de genocidio. Guatemala está dividida y es que a pesar de todas las pruebas presentadas para demostrar la culpabilidad de Ríos Montt en la matanza de más de 1.700 mayas indígenas ixiles entre 1982 y 1983, muchos continúan negando esa parte de la historia.

February 21, 2013, Port au Prince, Haiti: Today the Haitian Court of Cassation will hear an appeal challenging the dismissal of human rights charges against former Haitian president Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), along with twenty-seven other human rights and torture treatment organizations from the Americas and around the world, filed an amicus brief with the court, arguing that Haiti will violate its duties under international and domestic law if it does not move forward with the prosecution.

A Guatemalan judge ordered Efraín Rios Montt, the former dictator, and his intelligence chief to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the massacres of villagers in remote highlands three decades ago.