The brazilian’s amnesty law: confl icts between social agreement and international cooperation

Abstract

The Amnesty Law (Law nº 6.683/79), a juridical-political mechanism of fundamental importance to the consolidation of the democracy in Brazil aft er the dictatorial regime, brings chalanges to the ideal of international cooperation and jurisdiction. Th e amnesty, due to its amplitude and because it conceives forgiveness to barbaric crimes perpetrated by the State, is in confl ict with the understanding of other nations and International Tribunals. Th ey understand that crimes perpetrated by the State that put human rights in jeopardy are imprecriptable and non susceptible to amnesty. In the heart of this confl ict is the Supreme Federal Tribunal’s decision on the ADFP nº 130 which, standing back from recognizing the practice of crimes by the State against humanity, maintained intact the limits of forgiveness. Then, beginingfrom the position assumed by the SFT, the present paper will have as a goal the analysis of the juridical consequences of such decision with respect to the international duty of cooperating with other nations, specially those that intent to establish the penal persecution in face of such agents. Th e purposed analysis will have two perspectives: (i) the one concerning the passive requests for extradiction regarding crimes against humanity that took place in alien lands during the period inside the scope of the amnesty law; (ii) the perspective concerning the passive requests for extradiction regarding crimes against humanity that took place in alien lands during the period inside the scope of the amnesty law considering that one or more execution acts could have been made by Brazil or with the collaboration/participation of the Brazilian State (i.e. Condor Operation).