This article analyses the role that human rights bodies play in triggering the application of criminal law. By examining the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, as well as other human rights bodies, the article discusses how these institutions have started imposing on states positive obligations to criminalise, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations. While criminal law has traditionally been seen as a threat to fundamental rights, human rights bodies have contributed to presenting criminal law in a positive vein, as an essential instrument of human rights protection. The mainstream of the human rights movement has largely lauded the trend. This article challenges this view, by presenting the pitfalls of using human rights law to extend the reach of criminal justice in order to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable. Not only the imposition of duties to criminalise and punish ends up restricting the accused’s fundamental rights and neglecting the conceptualisation of criminal law as ultima ratio, but the invocation of criminal-law enforcement might also contribute to enhancing the coercive power of the state and, therefore, make state abuses more likely.

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通过人权法唤醒利维坦–人权机构如何触发刑法的适用

本文分析了人权机构在触发刑法实施中的作用。通过审查美洲人权法院，欧洲人权法院，联合国人权事务委员会以及其他人权机构的判例，本文讨论了这些机构如何开始强加各州对将刑事定罪的积极义务，起诉和惩处严重侵犯人权的行为。传统上，刑法被视为对基本权利的威胁，但人权机构为积极地提出刑法做出了贡献，这是保护人权的重要手段。人权运动的主流在很大程度上赞扬了这一趋势。本文对这种观点提出了挑战，提出利用人权法扩大刑事司法范围的陷阱，以确保对肇事者追究责任。施加刑事定罪和惩罚的义务不仅最终限制了被告的基本权利，而且忽视了刑法作为终极比例的概念，而且援引刑法的执行也可能有助于提高国家的强制力，因此， ，使国家更容易滥用职权。