64
199. The Court recalls that the purpose of its mandate is the application of the American
Convention and other treaties that grant it jurisdiction. It is not for the Court to establish
individual responsibilities,234 determination of which falls under the jurisdiction of the
domestic or the international criminal courts; rather its mandate is to assess the facts
submitted to it and to assess them in the exercise of its contentious jurisdiction based on
the evidence presented by the parties.235
200. Nevertheless, the Court deems that an incorrect assessment at the domestic level
regarding the juridical contents of the forced disappearance of persons hinders the
effective conduct of the criminal proceeding to the prejudice of the obligation of the State
to investigate and the right to access to justice in favor of the victims. In this respect,
crimes such as the unlawful deprivation of liberty do not satisfy the State’s duty to punish
a pluri-offensive conduct of rights like the forced disappearance of persons.236
201. Likewise, the Court has established in another case against the State of Bolivia, that,
because it dealt with a crime of permanent execution, namely, that its termination is
prolonged in time, when the codification of the crime of forced disappearance of persons
enters into force, because the criminal conduct is maintained, the new law results
applicable, without it representing its retroactive application.237 In this same sense, rulings
have been ordered by several courts of the highest branches of the States of the continent
of the Americas, such as the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru, the Constitutional Tribunal
of Peru, the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico, the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela
and the Constitutional Court of Colombia,238 States that, as Bolivia, have ratified the
Convention on Forced Disappearance.
202. On the other hand, the Court deems it is pertinent to repeat that with regard to
judicial practices, this Tribunal has established in its jurisprudence, that it is aware that the
domestic judges and tribunals are subject to the rule of law and that, therefore, they are
compelled to apply the regulations in force within the legal system.239 But, once a State
has ratified an international treaty such as the American Convention, its judges, as part of
the State’s apparatus, are also submitted to it, which compels them to make sure that the
234
Cf. Case of Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras. Merits, supra note 14, para. 134; Case of Anzualdo
Castro v. Peru, supra note 44, para. 36, and Case of Manuel Cepeda Vargas v. Colombia, supra note 6, para. 41.
235
Cf. Case of Cantoral-Huamaní and García-Santa Cruz v. Peru, supra note 195, para. 87, and Case of
Kawas Fernández v. Honduras, supra note 11, para. 79, and Case of Manuel Cepeda Vargas v. Colombia, supra
note 6, para. 41.
236
Cf. Case of Heliodoro Portugal v. Panama, supra note 1, para. 181, and Case of Trujillo-Oroza v. Bolivia.
Monitoring Compliance with Judgment, supra note 231, Considering Clause 39.
237
Cf. Case of Trujillo-Oroza v. Bolivia. Monitoring Compliance with Judgment, supra note 231, Considering
Clause 38. This was previously mentioned by the Court in the Case of Tiu Tojín v. Guatemala, supra note 209,
para. 87.
238
Cf. Supreme Court of Justice of Peru, judgment of March 20, 2006, Case file: 111-04, D.D Cayo Rivera
Schreiber. Constitutional Court of Peru, judgment of March 18, 2004, case file N.° 2488-2002-HC/TC, para. 26
(At http://www.tc.gob.pe/jurisprudencia/2004/02488-2002-HC.html) and judgment of December 9, 2004, case
file N.º 2798-04-HC/TC, para. 22 (At: http://www.tc.gob.pe/jurisprudencia/2005/02798-2004-HC.html).
Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico, Thesis: P./J. 49/2004, Weekly Publication of the Federal Judiciary and its
Gazette, Ninth Period, Full Chamber. Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, judgment of August 10, 2007. Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment C-580/02 of
July 31, 2002.
239
Cf. Case of Almonacid Arellano et al. v. Chile, supra note 200, para. 124, and Case of La Cantuta v.
Peru, supra note 89, para. 173, and Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, supra note 8, para. 339.
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