16
"The indivisibility between Articles 25 and 8 of the American Convention that I
maintain (supra) leads me to characterize access to justice, understood as the full
realization of justice, as forming part of the sphere of jus cogens; in other words, that
the inviolability of all the judicial rights established in Articles 25 and 8 considered
together belongs to the sphere of jus cogens. There can be no doubt that the
fundamental guarantees, common to international human rights law and international
humanitarian law, 65 have a universal vocation because they are applicable in any
circumstance, constitute a peremptory right (belonging to jus cogens), and entail
obligations erga omnes of protection. 66
Following its historic Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 on the Juridical Status and Rights
of Undocumented Migrants, the Court could and should have given this other qualitative
step forward in its case law. I dare hope that it will do so as soon as possible, if it truly
continues with its forward-thinking case law – instead of trying to halt it – and extends
the advance courageously achieved in this Advisory Opinion with the continuing
expansion of the material content of jus cogens” (paras. 64-65).
48.
I am particularly satisfied that, in this judgment on the Ituango Massacres,
the Inter-American Court has, unanimously, remained true to its most lucid
consistent case law in this respect, reiterating with great clarity its understanding
that Articles 25 and 8 of the American Convention are ineluctably indivisible, as can
be seen unequivocally from paragraphs 309 and 344 of this judgment. Likewise,
paragraph 339 of this judgment observes correctly that:
“(...) When establishing the international responsibility of the State for the violation of
the human rights embodied in Articles 8(1) and 25 of the American Convention, a
substantial aspect of the dispute before the Court is not whether judgments were
delivered at the national level or whether conciliation agreements were reached on the
civil or administrative responsibility of a State body with regard to the violations
committed to the detriment of the victims of human rights violations or their next of kin,
but whether the domestic proceedings ensured real access to justice, in keeping with the
standards established in the American Convention.”
VII.
The reaction of the juridical conscience: the evolution of the
notion of victim
49.
The case of the Ituango Massacres gives rise to another line of reflection. The
next of kin of the deceased and the surviving victims of the massacre have finally
found justice before this international judicial instance. Through this judgment, those
who were murdered have had their suffering recognized and their memory honored.
The Court has also assessed positively the initiative of the defendant State in this
dispute acknowledging its international responsibility for certain facts (although, I am
surprised it did not extend that acknowledgment before this international jurisdiction
to the juridical consequences of those facts). In brief, the juridical conscience (source
of all law) was awakened to do justice to the victims of the Ituango massacre, which
was inserted in a pattern of massacres that have plagued the country in question.
50.
We must not forget that the notion of victim – on which I have been reflecting
for many years 67 - continues to evolve in international human rights law. This
65
.
E.g. Article 75 of Protocol I (1977) to the 1949 Geneva Conventions on international
humanitarian law.
66
.
Cf., likewise, see, e.g., M. El Kouhene, Les garanties fondamentales de la personne en Droit
humanitaire et droits de l'homme, Dordrecht, Nijhoff, 1986, pp. 97, 145, 148, 161 and 241.
67
.
Cf., e.g., A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Co-Existence and Co-Ordination of Mechanisms of International
Protection of Human Rights (At Global and Regional Levels)", 202 Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de
Droit International de La Haye (1987), chap. XI: "The Evolution of the Notion of Victim or of the Condition