Eradicating Impunity for Gross Human Rights Violations in Aceh through the Framework of State Responsibility and International Penal Accountabilit

Abstract

This study aims to analyze systemic impunity in resolving cases of gross human rights violations in Aceh as a severe breach of international penal obligations and to examine the resulting consequences of state responsibility. The persistence of impunity regarding historical atrocities reflects a systemic state failure to provide effective prosecutorial mechanisms to establish the truth and deliver absolute criminal justice. Relying exclusively on nonjudicial reconciliation mechanisms such as the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding fails to extinguish the binding jus cogens obligations of the state to ensure strict penal accountability. This research employs a normative legal method utilizing legislative and conceptual approaches to prescriptively analyze international human rights instruments and the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts. The findings indicate that failing to ensure effective forensic investigation and prosecution constitutes an internationally wrongful act and a deliberate obstruction of justice. This persistent prosecutorial failure qualifies as a continuing breach under the law of state responsibility. Resolving these human rights violations must mandate the state to end the situation of impunity and provide absolute guarantees of non repetition alongside effective reparations by forcing the architects of systemic violence to face ultimate penal scrutiny.

Keywords: Continuing Breach, Gross Human Rights Violations, Impunity, Penal Accountability, State Responsibility.