"THE HISSENÈ HABRÉ CASE (CHAD) AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF CRIMINAL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE CRIMES OF AFRICAN DICTATORSHIPS THROUGH MIXED COURTS".
Africa; Dictatorship; Human Rights; Criminal Liability
The aim of this thesis is to identify the conditions under which mixed courts that can be placed to fight against impunity for crimes committed by dictatorial regimes in Africa. The analysis is based on the inductive method, starting from the experiences of the Extraordinary African Chambers, which convicted Hissenè Habré, the Ex-President of Chad, in 2016, to propose a model for the punishment of criminal agents of dictatorship for African countries. The question at issue is how acts committed in the past, according to the rules of law in vigor, can be punished today, even if this measure represents "violation" of the principle lawfulness, implies the revocation of the amnesty, or entails the non-recognition of limitations statute. This study seeks to face these problems with the argument that legality, amnesty, and prescription are requirements consistent with the dictates of the democratic rule of law, unlike authoritarian regimes, which legitimize crime as a political practice, making law one of its repressive dimensions. It is understood that laws that support criminal activities are not compatible with these guarantees, which prohibit the possibility of retroactive application of the criminal law, inserted in positive law to limit the punitive action of the State.