CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE EDUARDO VIO GROSSI
ORDER OF THE
INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
OF 23 NOVEMBER 2011,
CASE OF THE SARAMAKA PEOPLE V. SURINAME
MONITORING COMPLIANCE WITH JUDGMENT
Introduction.
The undersigned concurs, in this Opinion, with the Order indicated in the title, hereinafter
“the Order,” in the understanding that according to pertinent norms and in light of the
extended, and therefore imprudent or unreasonable, amount of time elapsed since the
issuance of the Judgment at hand without the State concerned, hereinafter “the State,”
having complied with its fundamental orders, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,
hereinafter “the Court,” should inform the General Assembly of the Organization of
American States, hereinafter “the General Assembly of the OAS,” of this lack of
compliance.
I.- The norms.
Indeed, Article 65 of the American Convention on Human Rights, hereinafter “the
Convention,” establishes:
“To each regular session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American
States the Court shall submit, for the Assembly's consideration, a report on its work
during the previous year. It shall specify, in particular, the cases in which a state
has not complied with its judgments, making any pertinent recommendations.”
For its part, Article 30 of the Court's Statute, hereinafter “the Statute,” states:
“Report to the OAS General Assembly
The Court shall submit a report on its work of the previous year to each regular
session of the OAS General Assembly. It shall indicate those cases in which a State
has failed to comply with the Court's ruling. It may also submit to the OAS General
Assembly proposals or recommendations on ways to improve the inter-American
system of human rights, insofar as they concern the work of the Court.”
As is evident, both norms establish a strict obligation, and not a power, for the Court.
The Court cannot, and certainly does not, escape the obligation of submitting an annual
report to the General Assembly of the OAS on the work it has carried out during the
preceding period.