Checkmate, Mr Dictator : the road to challenging impunity: from contesting amnesties to assest recovery

Abstract

For centuries, the impunity of the sovereign has been one of the most evident features of the international political architecture. The sole fact that we refer to this phenomenon as ‘culture of impunity’ indicates how deeply has it been ingrained in our societies. However, following the atrocities of the Second World War and the post-war growing concern with human rights, this paradigm started to change, especially during the last two decades. Gradually, impunity started being stigmatized. Twenty years ago, only few utopian idealists could imagine that dictators such as Charles Taylor could be held accountable for their crimes. Although impunity is usually discussed within its legal context, this thesis sheds a new light on the subject, arguing that dictatorship can be eliminated only if a mixture of startegies is applied. Using an analogy to the chess game where the one that attacks his opponent from different sides is the winner, this paper demonstartes that diffrent aspects of world’s despots impunity (such as legal, economic, political) need to be comprehensively tackled in order to achieve the ultimate goal of toppling the regime.