5 documented practice of the forced disappearance of children and the elimination of their identity and name during this armed conflict. 8 17. This decision of the Inter-American Court does not conform to its own recent case law in this regard and, in my opinion, is regressive. In the instant case, the will of the State has unfortunately prevailed over the imperatives of human rights protection. The time has come for the States Parties to the American Convention to refrain from formulating limitations of this nature, and to modify or withdraw those that they may have formulated in the past, in order to make them compatible with the precise scope of Article 62 of the Convention. 18. With its well-known and reputable juridical tradition, El Salvador could very well do this, giving a good example to some other countries. It is always worthwhile recalling the writings of the great Salvadoran international jurist Gustavo Guerrero, more than 70 years’ ago, who devoted himself particularly to writing on the State’s international responsibility and the codification of international law. He upheld the unity and universality of law, and invoked repeatedly the ideal of international justice as the best guarantee of peace. 9 19. In this regard, in the Trujillo Oroza case heard by the Court, Bolivia gave a good example of acknowledging its international responsibility for the facts described in the application of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, including those that occurred before the date on which it recognized the Court’s contentious jurisdiction (July 27, 1993) or ratified the American Convention on Human Rights (July 19, 1979). This enabled this Court to consider and decide on the continuing crime of the forced disappearance of José Carlos Trujillo Oroza (which commenced in 1971) and its juridical consequence (Judgment of February 27, 2002, para. 72). 20. The Court considered this continuing crime integrally, as a whole, as it should be. This means, as I indicated in my separate opinion in that case, that it is possible to overcome the contingencies of the classic postulates of the law of treaties, when there is awareness of this necessity; boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem (paras. 2 to 9). In Trujillo Oroza v. Bolivia, a favorable confluence of factors allowed the Court to take a notable step forward in its case law in its judgment of February 27, 2002. 8 . For reports which reveal that human cruelty has no limits, or even borders (since this practice also occurred in internal armed conflicts in other countries), cf. Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas Desaparecidos, El Día Más Esperado - Buscando a los Niños Desaparecidos de El Salvador, San Salvador, UCA Editores, 2001, pp. 11-324; Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas Desaparecidos (APBNND), La Problemática de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos como Consecuencia del Conflicto Armado Interno en El Salvador, San Salvador, APBNND, 1999, pp. 4-80; Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas Desaparecidos (APBNND), La Paz en Construcción - Un Estudio sobre la Problemática de la Niñez Desaparecida por el Conflicto Armado en El Salvador, San Salvador, APBNND, [2002], pp. 3-75; Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas Desaparecidos, "En Búsqueda: Identidad - Justicia - Memoria", 4 Época - San Salvador (2003), pp. 3-15; and cf. Amnesty International, El Salvador - ¿Dónde Están las Niñas y los Niños Desaparecidos?, London/San Salvador, A.I., 2003, pp. 1-10. Cf. also: Procuraduría para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, Caso Ernestina y Erlinda Serrano Cruz [the report of the Ombudsman on the forced disappearance of the children, Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz, its current impunity and the pattern of violence in which such disappearances occurred], San Salvador, PDDH, 2004, pp. 1 to 169 (internal circulation only). 9 . G. Guerrero, La Codification du Droit International, Paris, Pédone, 1930, pp. 9-10, 13, 24, 27 and 150. And cf. A.A. Cançado Trindade and A. Martínez Moreno, Doctrina Latinoamericana del Derecho Internacional, vol. I, San José, Costa Rica, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2003, pp. 5-64.

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