6
2004.18 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in turn, missed this
important specific conceptual point, and that even led the Commission to
inappropriately mix the issue of the emergence of the international responsibility of
the State with the “principle of subsidiarity,” as it is called (see infra).
III.
Beyond Subsidiarity: the Interaction between International Law and
Domestic Law in the current Sphere of Protection
19.
In face of this misunderstanding, I must specify another point, to clarify this
conceptual matter and perhaps to provide a better understanding of the issue. In its
Report of 11.10.2001 (under Article 50 of the American Convention) on the instant
case, the Inter-American Commission argued, somewhat surprisingly, that “not every
violation” of human rights committed by the agents of the State entails the
international responsibility of the State; according to the Commission’s Report, the
State does not incur responsibility if it investigates the facts, punishes those
responsible, and provides due reparation. According to the Commission, “the above
is explained by the subsidiary nature of the inter-American human rights system.”19
Still according to the Commission, in the instant case, the international responsibility
of the State remained because it did not conduct a complete and adequate
investigation, and it neither tried nor punished those responsible.20
20.
In its oral pleadings at the aforementioned public hearing before this Court on
07.05.2004 the Commission,21 as reported in the instant Judgment of the Court
(para. 68), once again inappropriately mixed the origin of the international
responsibility of the State with the “subsidiary nature” of international jurisdiction
with respect to domestic or national jurisdiction. In my understanding, any violation
of a right protected by the American Convention immediately entails the
responsibility of the State; the tempus commissi delicti is that when the
internationally wrongful act occurred. This gives rise –as consequences of the original
violation- to the obligations of the State under the Convention to investigate the
facts, punish those responsible, and provide reparations to the victims; if it does not
fulfill those obligations, the State commits additional violations to the applicable
international law.
21.
An ongoing international human rights proceeding is not affected by domestic
legal measures taken independently of it and in light of a different applicable law
(the domestic or national one); said measures, therefore, do not magically
“discharge” the international responsibility already incurred by the State or make it
“disappear.” Implementation of said responsibility (at a moment other than its birth)
necessarily occurs in light of the provisions of the human rights treaty involved,
which is directly applicable in the domestic law of the State responsible for
wrongdoing.
18
.
I-A Ct of HR, Transcripción de la Audiencia Pública Celebrada los Días 5, 6 and 7 de Mayo de
2004 – Caso de los hermanos Gómez Paquiyauri versus Perú, San Jose, Costa Rica, I-A Ct of HR, 2004,
p. 146 (internal distribution).
19
.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Informe n. 99/01 - Caso n. 11.016 (Perú), doc.
OAS/Ser/L/V/II.113/doc.36, of 11.10.2001, pp. 9 and 12-13, paras. 48-49, 59 and 63.
20
.
21
Ibid., pp. 15 and 19, paras. 69 and 87.
.
See Transcripción de la Audiencia Pública..., op. cit. supra n. (18), pp. 156-157 (internal
distribution).
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