117
processing of the petition of habeas corpus exceeded any permissible limit.
Moreover, given the delay in deciding the petition and inasmuch as some of those on
whose behalf it was filed were still being held at the Center when the writ was
granted, the petition was ineffective for the very persons it was intended to protect,
which constitutes a violation of Article 25(1) of the Convention.
b)
The failure to comply with the ruling on the petition of generic habeas corpus
248. Article 25(2)(c) of the Convention establishes the State’s obligation “to ensure
that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted.”
249. In the instant case, it has been shown (supra para. 134.28) that in Final
Ruling No. 652, delivered on July 31, 1998, the Civil and Commercial Law Judge of
First Instance, Ninth Rotation, granted the petition of generic habeas corpus filed on
behalf of the inmates at the Center. It read, in part, as follows:
[…] GRANT the petition of GENERIC HABEAS CORPUS filed […] on behalf of the juveniles
identified at […[ this decision, and confined in the ‘Col. Panchito López’ Juvenile
Reeducation Institute.
[…] the Director of that correctional facility, the ‘Col. Panchito López’ Juvenile
Reeducation Institute, the Director of Penal Institutions, and the Ministry of Justice and
Labor shall, in accordance with proper procedure, adopt forthwith effective and suitable
administrative and budgetary measures to correct the unlawful conditions described [...]
which adversely affect the juveniles also named in the preamble, who shall continue
their confinement in proper facilities, in accordance with Article 21 of the National
Constitution, under penalty of responsibility.
[…] that the authorities and institutions mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall
inform this court of the measures taken to comply with the court ruling [...] within no
more than thirty days and then periodically every three months, until the ruling has
been fully executed, under penalty of law.197
250. Those operative paragraphs clearly provided that the pertinent authorities
were to adopt “forthwith” all measures necessary to “correct the unlawful conditions”
at the Center, on behalf of the inmates interned there at that time. In all likelihood
by the time the writ was granted, the inmates at the Center were not the inmates
there on the date the petition had been filed. However, subsequent to the ruling, the
inmates protected by the writ continued to endure the same unsanitary and
overcrowded conditions, without proper health care, ill-fed, under the constant threat
of being punished, in an atmosphere of tension, violence, abuse, and unable to
effectively enjoy a number of their human rights. So much so that subsequent to
issuance of the writ of generic habeas corpus the three fires previously described
broke out (supra paragraphs 134.29, 134.33 and 134.34). In other words, the writ
of generic habeas corpus was so belated as to be in violation of the law. But that
situation was compounded by the failure to comply with the writ, as a result of which
the degrading and subhuman conditions under which the inmates at the detention
facility lived did not change. The State itself acknowledged as much and stated that
the inmates at the Center were not relocated because the State “did not have an
adequate place.”
251. For all the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that the State did not provide
the inmates at the Center with a “simple and prompt recourse” when the petition of
generic habeas corpus was granted, nor did it provide an effective remedy to the 239
197
Ruling of the Civil and Commercial Law Judge of First Instance, Ninth Rotation, S.D. No. 652 of
July 31, 1998, which granted the petition of habeas corpus filed by the Tekojojá Foundation (file of
appendixes to the application, appendix 20, folio 327).
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