Barrios Altos v Peru

Barrios Altos v Peru was a 2001 decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights holding that Peru's amnesty laws, which had shielded members of the security forces from prosecution for a 1991 massacre of fifteen people carried out by an army death squad in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, were incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights and lacked legal effect, because amnesty provisions that prevent the investigation and punishment of serious human rights violations are impermissible. The ruling became a leading precedent across Latin America against self amnesty laws that shield state actors from accountability for atrocities.