However in March 2000, Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that General Pinochet was unfit to stand trial due to medical reasons. ... After review of international law and jurisdiction principles the universal jurisdiction principle upholds that foreign states are not limited to extradite or prosecute criminals over "gross" offenses and human rights treaties can be enforced extraterritorially. ...
"We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of a human person, in the equal rights of men and women in nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom."" ... Clive Archer, an autho...
The use of mercenaries has been historically a constant phenomenon till almost the end of the XX century, when their activities were criminalized by the international community. Parallel to that phenomenon European States, during their colonial expansion over all continents, authorized two other forms of similar violence by non state actors: the corsairs and the colonial merchant companies, such as the East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company. At the threshold of the XXI century we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Although mercenaries have not completely disappeared "private milit...
