“Asilo Americano” and the Interplay of Sovereignty, Revolution, and Latin American Human Rights Advocacy -- The Case of 20th-Century Argentina
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Authors
Skiba, Lynsay
Issue Date
2012-10
Volume
3
Issue
1
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION
In 1952, Carlos Sánchez Viamonte, a prominent Argentine lawyer, congressman, and early human rights advocate, called “el derecho de asilo” – the right of diplomatic asylum – the most significant Latin American contribution to public international law. He labeled it a “guarantee in favor of the… oppressed … [,] sometimes the only possible protection for individual liberty inside the territorial limits of a nation whose government invokes sovereignty with repressive…ends.” Other commentators have called it “the highest tribute that can be paid to individual liberty,” “not only an exceptionally noble conquest of American International Law, but a tradition that extols the humanitarian and democratic spirit of the hemisphere’s countries, since it is founded on the defense of all men’s freedom to speak out against a government or political system.” |This understudied Latin American practice allows political dissidents to seek refuge in, and safe passage out, of embassies and other extraterritorial sites located in the very countries that deem them threats. Frequently employed during the civil wars and revolutionary conflicts of the 19th century, diplomatic asylum became …
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Publisher
Creighton University School of Law
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