Table Of ContentThe Colombian Peace Process and the Principle
of Complementarity of the International
Criminal Court
.
Kai Ambos
The Colombian Peace
Process and the Principle of
Complementarity of the
International Criminal Court
An Inductive, Situation-based Approach
ProfessorDr.jur.KaiAmbos
UniversityofGo¨ttingen
HeadDepartmentforForeignandInternationalCriminalLaw
ChairforCriminalLaw,CriminalProcedure,
ComparativeLawandInternationalCriminalLaw
JudgeattheProvincialCourt(Landgericht)Go¨ttingen
PlatzderGo¨ttingerSieben5
37073Go¨ttingen
Germany
[email protected]
ISBN978-3-642-11272-0 e-ISBN978-3-642-11273-7
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-11273-7
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010927684
# Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2010
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Preface
Thisbookisbasedonanin-depthresearchintotheColombianpeaceprocessunder
the Justice and Peace Law (Law 975 of 2005), with a view to the obligations set
forth under the complementarity principle of the ICC Statute. The research was
commissioned by GTZ-ProFis, a project funded by the German government with
the goal of assisting Colombia’s Unit of Justice and Peace (Unidad de Justicia y
Paz)oftheOfficeoftheProsecutorGeneral(Fiscal(cid:1)iaGeneraldelaNacio´n)which
is the most important institution to make this process work. The research was
conducted in 2008 and 2009 involving various missions to Colombia (see Annex
I). The original Spanishlanguage studywas presentedinOctober2009 inBogota´
and was published by GTZ-ProFis and the Colombian publishing house Temis
(www.editorialtemis.com) in February 2010; it is also available online at www.
department-ambos.uni-goettingen.de/index.php/en/Forschung/friedensprozess-in-
kolumbien-aufgrund-des-gesetzes-975-v-2272005.html.
The study pursues an inductive, situation-based approach with regard to the
interpretationofthecomplementarityprinciplegoverningtherelationshipbetween
the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and national criminal justice
systems(Art.17ICCStatute).ThesituationitstartsfromistheColombianpeace
processunderthesaidLaw975.ThequestionwithregardtoArticle17iswhether
Colombia–asapartytotheICCStatutewhichhasbeenmonitoredforyearsbythe
Office of the Prosecutor – has complied with its obligations under Art. 17 ICC
Statute.Thestudyisstructuredasfollows:thefirstpartcontainsacriticalanalysis
oftheprocessunderLaw975,takingintoaccountnotonlytherelevantnormsbut
especially the practical implementation of the law. With this part a gap is filled
since there is thus far no systematic and chronological analysis of this process in
English. In the second part, the complementarity test of Art. 17 ICC Statute is
systematicallyanalyzedandappliedtotheColombiansituation.First,theobjectof
reference of this test, in particular the distinction between situation and case, is
lookedat.Then,theactualcomplementaritytest,distinguishingbetweenthe(addi-
tional)gravitythresholdofArt.17andcomplementaritystrictosensu,isexamined.
Somerecommendationsforthefurtherapplication ofLaw975concludethispart.
v
vi Preface
At the end of the book, the reader is provided with various annexes containing
additional sources with material for further research, including all the relevant
norms and case law (Annex I), an English translation of Law 975 (II) and a
schematicoverviewofthisLaw(III),inadditiontotheusualbibliography.
Thepublicationofthisstudywouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutthecommit-
mentandconstantsupportoftheGTZ-ProFisprojectandtheJusticeandPeaceUnit
oftheFiscal(cid:1)iawithallitsprosecutorsandinvestigatorswhoreceivedandaccom-
panied the author while he was in Colombia. I am also indebted toall the institu-
tionsandindividualswhoIwasabletovisitandinterviewinColombia.Theyare
all mentioned in Annex I, Section 5. I finally thank my research assistants and
LLM/doctoral students Florian Huber (Go¨ttingen) and John Zuluaga (Go¨ttingen/
Medell´ın,Colombia)fortheirassistanceintheEnglishversionofthisstudy.Their
assistancewasalsoinvaluableinthepreparationoftheoriginalSpanishversionof
the study which was also supported by Rodrigo Andre´s Gonza´lez-Fuente-Rubilar
(Go¨ttingen/Concepcio´n, Chile). Last but not least, I thank my doctoral student
OusmanNjikam,currentlyworkingattheICTYinTheHague,forafinallanguage
revision. The English publication of this study would not have been possible
without the generous financial support of the German Foreign Ministry (Auswa¨r-
tigesAmt).
March2010 KaiAmbos,Go¨ttingen
Contents
Abbreviation ................................................................... xi
PartI Law975anditsprocess
Chapter1 PreliminaryRemarks ............................................ 3
Chapter2 TheProcessUnderLaw975 ................................... 11
2.1 Demobilization,disarmamentandreintegration ............ 12
2.2 Preliminaryinvestigationand“versio´nlibre” ............... 14
2.3 Formulationof“imputation”andcharges ................... 17
2.4 Reparation ................................................... 21
2.5 Determinationofthesentence ............................... 23
Chapter3 IntermediateConclusions ...................................... 25
PartII Thecomplementaritytest(Art.17)anditsapplicationtothe
Colombiansituation
Chapter4 PreliminaryConsiderations:TheObjectofReferenceofthe
ComplementarityTest(Situation–Case–Conduct) ........... 37
Chapter5 GravityandComplementarityStrictoSensu ................. 43
5.1 Sufficientgravity(Art.17(1)(d)) ........................... 44
5.1.1 Thestandardincurrentpractice ...................... 44
5.1.2 Theownapproach .................................... 48
5.1.3 ApplicationtothesituationinColombia ............. 51
5.2 Complementaritystrictosensu .............................. 54
5.2.1 AdmissibilityduetototalStateinaction ............. 55
5.2.1.1 Generalconsiderations ....................... 55
vii
viii Contents
5.2.1.2 ApplicationtothesituationinColombia .... 57
5.2.2 InadmissibilityduetoStateaction
(Art.17(1)(a)–(c)and20(3)) ....................... 59
5.2.2.1 Generalconsiderations ....................... 59
5.2.2.2 ApplicationtothesituationinColombia .... 63
5.2.3 Admissibilityduetounwillingnessorinability
(Art.17(2)and(3)) ................................... 63
5.2.3.1 Preliminaryremarks .......................... 63
5.2.3.2 Unwillingness ................................ 66
a) Generalconsiderations ................... 66
b) Applicationtothesituation
inColombia .............................. 72
aa) Purposeofshielding ................. 72
bb) Unjustifieddelay ..................... 73
cc) Independentandimpartial
proceedings .......................... 75
dd) Generalandparadigmaticaspects ... 76
5.2.3.3 Inability ....................................... 80
a) Generalconsiderations ................... 80
b) Applicationtothesituation
inColombia .............................. 83
Chapter6 Conclusion:ClassifyingtheColombianCasewithaView
toDifferentTransitionalJusticeScenarios ................... 89
Chapter7 SomeRecommendationsfortheFurtherApplication
ofLaw975 ....................................................... 91
DocumentsandMaterials
1. AdditionalSources ...................................................... 97
1.1 NORMATIVEFRAMEWORK ..................................... 97
1.1.1 Legislation .................................................... 97
1.1.2 ExecutiveDecrees ............................................ 98
1.1.3 Resolutions,agreements,memorandaandothers ............ 98
1.2 JURISPRUDENCE .................................................. 101
1.2.1 InternationalJurisprudence ................................... 101
1.2.2 ColombianJurisprudence ..................................... 103
1.3 DOCUMENTS ....................................................... 106
1.3.1 Governmentaldocuments ..................................... 106
1.3.2 Internationalandnon-governmentalorganizations .......... 109
1.3.3 Pressreports .................................................. 114
Contents ix
1.4 (Further)BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................... 116
1.4.1 Monographs/Books ........................................... 116
1.4.2 Articlesinjournals/books .................................... 121
1.5 FIELDWORK:INTERVIEWSANDMEETINGS ................ 124
1.5.1 Interviews ..................................................... 124
1.5.2 Meetings ...................................................... 125
2. LAWNO.975,25JULY2005(Englishtranslation) .................. 129
CHAPTERI .............................................................. 129
Principlesanddefinitions ............................................ 129
CHAPTERII ............................................................. 132
Preliminaryaspects .................................................. 132
CHAPTERIII ............................................................ 133
Proceduralprinciples ................................................ 133
CHAPTERIV ............................................................ 134
Investigationandprosecution ....................................... 134
CHAPTERV ............................................................. 139
AlternativeSentence ................................................ 139
CHAPTERVI ............................................................ 139
Regimeforthedeprivationofliberty ............................... 139
CHAPTERVII ........................................................... 140
Institutionsfortheexecutionofthislaw ............................ 140
CHAPTERVIII .......................................................... 141
RightsofvictimswithrespecttotheAdministrationofJustice .... 141
CHAPTERIX ............................................................ 143
Righttoreparationforthevictims .................................. 143
CHAPTERX ............................................................. 146
Conservationofarchives ............................................ 146
CHAPTERXI ............................................................ 147
HumanitarianAccords ............................................... 147
CHAPTERXII ........................................................... 147
Entryintoforceandcomplementaryprovisions .................... 147
3. SchematicOverviewoftheProcedureUnderLaw975 .............. 151
4. Bibliography .............................................................. 153
