ABSTRACT
This chapter considers whether international courts are necessary to help postconflict nations confront their past and democratize. By looking at the Inter–American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), it examines whether international courts can effectively promote human rights accountability and protection. The Plan de Sanchez case in the IACHR, and other cases like it, have the ability to bring justice for Mayans by creating a domino effect of legal accountability for thousands accused of similar human rights violations in Guatemala. Roxanna Altholz, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) lawyer who served as lead counsel in the Myrna Mack case, explained that the organization seeks cases that are ''emblematic of a wider set of violations''. Jorge Carpio Nicolle was murdered because of his opposition to an amnesty provision that would have prevented legal accountability for thousands accused of human rights violations.
