ABSTRACT
As mentioned before, the Pinochet principle provides that violations of certain international human rights standards are so egregious that any country in the world is lawfully able to prosecute those who directed or carried them out, through the exercise of what is known as universal jurisdiction. More than that, under the Torture Convention, state parties obligate themselves to either prosecute or extradite any torturers who are within a country's territorial borders. Similarly, the Genocide Convention obligates state parties to “punish” those who are responsible for carrying out genocide. On the basis of this law, one might conclude that dictators and torturers would simply have no place to hide. Think again.
