Many Roads to Justice: The Law Related Work of Ford ... - UNDP

6 6 CA S E ST U D I E Scomplaints gave an empirical measure of the detentions and torture.If the Vicariate simply reported the number of judicial complaintsfiled, which was a recognized part of the legal process, itcould not convincingly be accused of involvement in an “internationalsmear campaign” against the military regime. Informationcoming from these sworn testimonies was included in monthlyand annual reports that the Vicariate prepared and distributedworldwide. These reports catalogued human rights violations,changes in the forms of repression, and legal actions the Vi c a r i a t ehad filed in response. This information was widely used by internationalhuman rights organizations to increase pressure on theChilean government. On the basis of Vicariate documentation andother sources, the UN General Assembly annually condemnedhuman rights conditions in Chile from 1974 until 1988.In the late 1980s, several human rights groups began presentingindividual cases before the Inter-American Commission onHuman Rights, which could find states responsible for rights violations.The Colombian Commission of Jurists was one of thesegroups, specializing in representing victims. Its deputy director,Carlos Rodriguez, says, “When we began, the Inter- A m e r i c a nCommission had only handed down one decision concerningColombia. To d a y, and after ten years of work, there are seventeendecisions.” Bringing cases to the Inter-American Commission hashad an important impact in publicizing human rights violationsand in informing domestic judiciaries of human rights standardsthat should be applied in national courts.Adapting to Political ChangesIn 1983, dictatorship had given way to democracy inA rgentina. The transitional leadership adopted measures to prosecutemembers of the military juntas who were involved in pasthuman rights violations. A few years later, in 1987, the civiliangovernment enacted a law that suspended those prosecutions.Chile remained under the control of a military dictatorship, butrepression eased as the country prepared for a 1988 plebiscite,which voted to end the military regime. The human rights situationin Colombia and Peru was much more complex after 1985, as