Criminal treatment for State agents in transition contexts: Lights and shadows from Inter-American standards

Abstract

Since the signing of the Colombian Peace Agreement, there have been developed a series of rules that allow its implementation. However, it is clear that all content of domestic law must respect the international standards that have been established for the reparation of victims of serious violations of human rights, as well as the prosecution of their perpetrators. In this sense, this article will set out one of the axes of a legal research, with a qualitative approach that sought to analyze the reception of inter-American standards in the Colombian Peace Agreement and the norms that developed it. For this case, it will be performed an analysis of the prosecution or criminal treatment of perpetrators who have been State agents, based on the content of Legislative Act 01 of 2017, and Law 1820 of 2016, in light of the inter-American parameters applicable to this subject. In this way, it will be concluded which have been the successes and failures in the provisions that provide amnesties’ concessions in a process of peace construction as complex as it has been the one in Colombia.