The obligation of effective investigation in International Law of Human Rights: Special reference to the Spanish practice

Abstract

The obligation of effective investigation is an international obligation related to serious violations of human rights belonging to the international law of human rights and to the international norms relating to victims. It is an international obligation of behavior, procedural, linked to the right to life and the prohibition of torture requiring the State to proceed ex officio to a quick, complete, impartial and appropriate investigation to identify and punish those responsible for the victimizator fact from the moment that has knowledge of the same. At the same time, it is an obligation that prevents the State from invoking any reason that would justify its violation. According to international human rights jurisprudence, an investigation which culminates in the prescription of criminal responsibility is not an effective investigation; criterion that has particular relevance in the case of Spain in respect of the crimes committed by the nationalist Basque terrorist organization ETA still unsolved according to the report of Presidence Audiencia Nacional entitled Balance provisional sobre la información solicitada por las víctimas de ETA en relación con 349 atentados cometidos por la referida banda terrorista (2011).