Breaking Silence (e-book) (used book) | Richard Alan White | bookbook.eu

Description

Gripping narrative of a remarkable crime that has changed the landscape of international human rights law. While the case is a U.S. federal court proceeding, the underlying drama involves the torture and murder of the 17-year-old son of a courageous and Paraguayan doctor and critic of the Stroesner dictatorship. White, a historian by training, was and is a friend of the Filartega family, and much of the book is a first-hand account of the how the Filartegas, aided by White himself, sought--and eventually achieved--justice. In its narrative approach it resembles Capote's In Cold Blood. The Filartega case has redefined the role of our courts in enforcing human rights in international law. It has served as the basis for nearly one hundred progeny suits, which have grown to encompass not only human rights abuses, but also violations of international environmental and labor rights law. Today, there are dozens of class action suites pending against corporate defendants ranging from oil conglomerates destroying the Amazon rain forests to designer clothing companies running sweat shops abroad. All of these cases can be traced to the Filartega decision. White, who wrote his first book in the early 1970s on revolution in Paraguay, returned to that country shortly after Joelito Filartega's death, in 1976. He lived in the Filartega's home, sharing their agonies and their terror, as they tried to find their son's killer. Eventually, in 1980, aided by the Carter Administration's state department, the Filartegas won a $10 million suit against Paraguay's top police officer, Pena, for violating international law--the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789. More recently, in 2001, Dr. Filartiga was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.