From Cautious Optimism to Backlash: Uruguay and the Gelman Decision after Ten Years

Gelman v. Uruguay (2011) was a watershed moment in Uruguayan civil society's quest for accountability, prompting official repeal of the country's 1986 Amnesty Law. Much scholarship about the case centres around the immediate aftermath of the decision, largely on initial compliance and cautious optimism for accountability. Yet the analysis of a longer timeframe reveals mixed results. The article examines how initial momentum unravelled as conditions for compliance weakened amid backlash against the judgment. It reveals the challenges with implementing criminal accountability measures, even in established democracies with otherwise strong human rights records, and argues for the importance of understanding compliance as a non-linear process.