4
Court but that the provisions established in the Statute of the International Court of
Justice would fully apply in the instant case under general international law.
g.
That the judgment of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice
of Nicaragua constitutes a new act,
a new juridical act that deprives the victim of the possibility of prompt, simple and
effective recourse for protection against the violation of his rights (Art. 25 of the
Convention), against the acquittal by the military tribunals ... [which] denied the Genie
family the opportunity to enjoy EFFECTIVE RECOURSE against the military judgment. It
constitutes a new element in the Proceeding, which justifies the REVIEW of the Judgment
delivered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
II
5.
The Court as currently composed is competent to hear the instant matter, by
analogy with Article 16 of its Rules of Procedure which establishes that
[a]ll matters relating to reparations and indemnities, as well as supervision of the implementation
of the judgments of this Court, shall be heard by the judges comprising it at that stage of the
proceedings, unless a public hearing has already been held. In that event, they shall be heard by
the judges who had attended that hearing.
III
6.
There is no provision for the remedy of revision in the American Convention or in the
Statute or the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Court. However, this Court deems
it opportune to hear the aforementioned application for revision filed by the Inter-American
Commission inasmuch as it was submitted within a reasonable time and because "[t]he
transparency of this Tribunal’s proceedings is enhanced by clarification, when it so deems
appropriate, of the content and scope of its judgements, thereby dispelling any doubts
about them, and that they may not be challenged on the basis of merely formal
considerations" (El Amparo Case, [Application for Judicial Review of the Judgment of
Septem-ber 14, 1996], Order of the Court of April 16, 1997. Series C No. 46,
Considerandum 1.)
7.
Article 61 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice establishes the remedy
of revision and states that
[a]n application for revision of a judgment may be made only when it is based upon the discovery
of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which fact was, when the judgment was
given, unknown to the Court and also to the party claiming revision, always provided that such
ignorance was not due to negligence.
8.
There is no provision for such a recourse in the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but Rule 60 of Rules of Court B of
the European Court of Human Rights (corresponding to Rule 57 of Rules of Court A)
provides as follows:
[a] party or the Commission may, in the event of the discovery of a fact which might by its nature
have a decisive influence and which, when the judgment was delivered, was unknown both to the
Court and to that party or the Commission, request the Court, within a period of six months after
that party or the Commission, as the case may be, acquired knowledge of such fact, to revise that