REPORT Nº 117/06 1 PETITION 107004 ADMISSIBILITY MILAGROS FORNERÓN AND LEONARDO ANÍBAL JAVIER FORNERÓN ARGENTINA October 26, 2006 I. SUMMARY 1. This report concerns the admissibility of Petition No. 107004 which was opened by the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “InterAmerican Commission”, “Commission” or “IACHR”) following receipt of a petition on October 14, 2004, lodged by Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón and Margarita Rosa Nicoliche, legal representative of CESPPEDH ( Centro de Estudios Sociales y Políticos para el Desarrollo Humano) , juridically represented by Susana Ana María Terenzi and Alberto Pedronccini, president of APDH, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, (hereinafter “the petitioners”), against the Republic of Argentina (hereinafter “Argentina”, or “the State”). The petitioners allege that the State is responsible under the terms of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “American Convention” or “the Convention”) because Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón was prevented from caring for and bringing up his daughter, Milagros Fornerón, thus prejudicing his rights as a father and the best interests of the child. 2. The petitioners claim that on June 16, 2000, the child Milagros, daughter of Diana Elizabeth Enríquez, was born in the city of Victoria in the province of Entre Ríos and that the following day in the presence of the Ombudsman for Children and the Poor, [ Defensor de Pobres y Menores ] she was delivered into the provisional guardianship of a couple with a view to adoption. 3. It is claimed in the petition that Mr. Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón learned that Milagros was his daughter on July 4, 2000, and formally recognized her on July 18, 2000 at the Registry for Marital Status and Personal Legal Capacity in the city of Victoria. It is stated that on October 18, 2000, Mr. Fornerón applied to the civil and commercial judge of first instance in the city of Victoria for the suspension of the provisional guardianship order and for the return of his daughter. However, on May 17, 2001, the judge decided to award guardianship of Milagros to the couple to whom she had been delivered by her biological mother. It is also alleged that on November 15, 2001, Mr. Fornerón brought proceedings for visiting rights in which no resolution had yet been reached by the time the petition was lodged, which the petitioners allege has prevented him from getting to know his daughter. The petition alleges that the proceedings for both legal guardianship and visiting rights were marked by unwarranted delays on the part of the jurisdictional authorities and that this has led to Mr. Fornerón being excluded from Milagros’ life. 4. The State, for its part, claims that Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón had full access to all effective legal remedies, in the civil as well as in the criminal courts and although he has never relinquished his claims before the relevant judicial authorities for the return of his daughter Milagros, there have been inactive periods in the management of his case where the delays have not been attributable to the local legal authorities. The State maintains that Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón failed to exhaust the additional mechanism of an extraordinary appeal at federal level, in the criminal process, and also a direct appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice, as part of the case concerning legal guardianship. The State therefore believes the case should be declared inadmissible. 5. As stipulated in Articles 46 and 47 of the American Convention, as well as in Articles 30 and 37 of its Rules of Procedure, and having examined the positions of the parties, the Commission Commission Member Victor E. Abramovich, who is Argentinean, did not participate in the deliberations or decision of the present case, in accordance with the provisions of Article 17.2.a of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission. 1 1