ABSTRACT
This chapter examines conventions relating to the repression of international crimes and their bearing on the permissibility of amnesty for the international crimes. It describes the development of the principle of individual liability for international crimes and explains the treaty obligations to prosecute genocide and grave breaches of the laws of war applicable in international armed conflicts. The chapter considers whether the international convention prohibiting the application of statutory limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity has a bearing on the issue of amnesty, both mechanisms representing potential obstacles to the prosecution of international crimes. It explores the treaty obligations to prosecute torture and enforced disappearances. The chapter outlines whether customary law imposes a duty to prosecute international crimes, particularly those for which there is no treaty-based repression regime, that is, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in non-international armed conflicts.
