This paper analyzes the emergence and diffusion of the norm of individual criminal accountability for human rights violations from the perspective of the contentious jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights Court. Taking as reference the research of Kathryn Sikkink on transitional justice, this paper seeks to identify how the Inter-American Human Rights System has been expanding the meaning of individual criminal accountability and also suggests the incompatibility with the protection of human rights that this new model may have.
Duty to Punish; Human Rights; Inter-American Human Rights Court; Criminal Accountability