The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru has clarified this Saturday that the recent pronouncement of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Human Rights Council, regarding the situation of former president Pedro Castillo, is not binding and does not modify in any case the resolutions already adopted by the country's authorities.
In an official note, the Peruvian Chancellery has delimited the legal scope of the document disseminated by this UN mechanism on the former president and has emphasized the nature of the opinions issued by this group, whose objective is to "promote international dialogue and cooperation in the field of Human Rights".
Thus, Foreign Affairs has detailed that the aforementioned group "is a Special Procedure of the Human Rights Council of (the UN), composed of independent professionals who, within the framework of the mandate conferred by said body, examine individual communications and formulate opinions and recommendations addressed to States".
Immediately thereafter, the Ministry has pointed out that, "in accordance with Public International Law, the opinions of the Working Group constitute pronouncements issued by a non-jurisdictional supervisory mechanism".
Therefore, it has insisted that "its opinions do not have the legal nature of an international sentence, they do not constitute binding jurisdictional decisions and they do not produce, by themselves, direct effects in the internal legal system and, therefore, they do not modify the decisions adopted by the competent national authorities".
This position is known after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded this Thursday that the detention of former president Pedro Castillo, carried out within the framework of an investigation for an alleged coup attempt in December 2022, was "arbitrary" and demanded his immediate release.
According to the UN specialists, the arbitrariness of the detention lies in the fact that it would violate articles 3, 9, 10, and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — rights to liberty, not to be arbitrarily detained, to an independent tribunal, and to the presumption of innocence — and articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which emphasize the right to liberty and equality before the courts.
Relying on this report, Castillo claimed this Friday for his release, maintaining that this "historic decision" confirms "unequivocally" that his imprisonment lacked foundation and that the Peruvian State "flagrantly violated" his Human Rights.
The former president has also called on "all national and international human rights protection bodies, as well as the justice administration bodies of Peru" to comply "immediately" and apply "what has been decided by this United Nations body", warning that, if ignored, the Peruvian State places itself "in a condition of open rebellion and violation of international law".
Castillo is serving an eleven-year prison sentence for rebellion charges related to the failed coup attempt of December 2022, when he tried to dissolve Congress and convene a constituent assembly in response to the Legislative Branch's blocking of his legislative initiatives. In addition to this sentence, he faces another trial for alleged corruption and for leading a supposed criminal organization.