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37 - The Right to Life and the Responsibility of Individuals

from Part IV - Accountability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2021

Stuart Casey-Maslen
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria
Christof Heyns
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria
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Summary

Under international law, individual responsibility exists for violation of jus cogens norms, which include arbitrary deprivation of life, resulting from acts or omissions. Peremptory norms of international law are binding not only on all States, corporations, armed groups, and organisations, but also on individuals. As the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic declared in 2012: ‘at a minimum, human rights obligations constituting peremptory international law (ius cogens) bind States, individuals and non-State collective entities, including armed groups’. While the most obvious route for realising individual responsibility for a violation of the right to life is through the criminal law – domestic or international – there are also civil remedies available in certain States. This is most notably the case in the United States (US), based on the Alien Tort Statute of 1789 or actions under Section 1983 of the US Code.

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The Right to Life under International Law
An Interpretative Manual
, pp. 680 - 688
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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