Complicidad, responsabilidad penal de directivos empresariales y violaciones de Derechos Humanos cometidas por grupos armados ilegales: Lecciones del Derecho Penal Internacional para Colombia

This work discusses some criteria for attributing criminal liability to business leaders for international crimes perpetrated in Colombia by illegal armed groups. Based on it, an attempt is made to stablish when the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) can judge businessmen, since the Peace Agreement signed by the Colombian Government and the guerrilla group FARC-EP refers, somehow vaguely, to the “determining participation” of civilians in the crimes, as a standard to decide this point. Taking into consideration some relevant decisions for the development of the international criminal law, this article argues that the concept of complicity offers an appropriate framework for imputation in those cases. With the aim to separate the issue of jurisdiction from the question on the degree of individual criminal liability, it also proposes to distinguish between the contribution of a company to an armed group and the contribution of a person inside a company to the action of that company.