Retomando a promessa de “nunca mais”: responsabilidade internacional em casos de genocídio e crimes contra a humanidade cometidos contra grupos religiosos

Abstract

Even after the international community’s promise to ensure that never again would anyone face the horror of genocide, religious groups continue to be targets of international crimes of discriminatory intent – genocide and the crime against humanity of persecution (article 6 and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute and article II of the Genocide Convention). Therefore, this research faces the following problem: are legal responses that appeal only to individual responsibility or only to state responsibility sufficient? To answer it, this hypothesis is proposed: no, because when facing international crimes, a response that considers the complementarity of both state and individual responsibility regimes is more effective for the protection of human rights. Using the inductive approach method and the bibliographical research technique, the path taken in this thesis will be divided into three main chapters, which seek to fulfill the general objective of analyzing the effectiveness of legal avenues for attributing international responsibility for genocide and persecution of religious groups. The first chapter analyzes the international normative framework for freedom of religion or belief, i.e. the universal and regional human rights systems, as well as how the norms are applied by the corresponding mechanisms. The aim is to understand the common normative content of the international provisions dealing with this freedom, their scope of protection and the situations in which it is violated, such as in cases of international crimes of discriminatory intent. The second chapter seeks to assess the individual and the state international responsibility when human rights of religious groups are violated through acts of genocide and persecution. We analyze the applicable norms and the corresponding responsibility mechanisms, as well as selected cases from the international criminal tribunals and the International Court of Justice jurisprudence, in order to understand the scope of action and the limits of each system of international responsibility. From the assessment of these two chapters, it is possible to grasp two important correlations, which are examined in the third chapter: (i) international criminal law and international human rights law and (ii) the complementarity between individual and state international responsibility. Thus, we suggest a theoretical bases approach that allow for an international legal response that considers the violations studied in their comprehensiveness.