HUMAN rights activists have condemned a new law passed by Peru’s Congress establishing a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity committed before July 2002.

The Institute of Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru said that the law, approved on Thursday, “aims to limit the application of internal justice through the extinction of any criminal liability due to the passage of time.”

Last month, several Peruvian human rights organisations warned that passage of the legislation would promote impunity in all cases related to the internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000.