Accountability for violations of civil and political rights: redress within and beyond the penal frame

This chapter critically examines accountability mechanisms for civil and political rights violations, challenging the dominance of criminal accountability as the primary response to ‘serious’ human rights breaches, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. While human rights bodies typically mandate criminal prosecution for such violations, this chapter argues that human rights frameworks (could) support a broader range of accountability measures that require states to account for their compliance with civil and political rights. By analysing the core features of the criminal accountability norm − including states’ obligations to criminalise, prosecute, and punish individuals, and to avoid measures obstructing criminal liability − the chapter demonstrates that prioritising criminal accountability may obscure the multi-layered and multi-faceted accountability mechanisms available in relation to civil and political rights. The chapter concludes by considering accountability for both ‘serious’ and ‘standard’ violations of civil and political rights in more transformative rather than punitive terms.