40.
Finally, the Commission has jurisdiction ratione materiae, because as will be explained in the
characterization section below, the petitions considered in the present report allege facts that could tend to
establish a violation of the rights protected by the American Convention.
B.
Exhaustion of remedies under domestic law
41.
Article 46.1.a of the American Convention provides that, for a petition filed with the InterAmerican Convention to be admissible in conformity with Article 44 of the Convention, it is necessary to have
filed and exhausted remedies under domestic law in line with generally recognized principles of international
law. Nevertheless, subparagraphs a) and b) of Article 46.2 of the Convention establish that said requirement
shall not be applicable when “the domestic legislation of the state concerned does not afford due process of law
for the protection of the right or rights that have allegedly been violated” or when “the party alleging violation
of his rights has been denied access to the remedies under domestic law or has been prevented from exhausting
them.” In that respect, the Inter-American Court has established that when, for reasons of fact or law, remedies
under domestic law are not available to the petitioners, they are exempt from the obligation of exhausting them.
42.
In response to the allegations by the parties, the Commission observes that, when the
resolutions that ordered nonrenewal of the petitioners were issued, the Political Constitution of Peru, the Basic
Law of the National Judicial Council, and Regulations for the Evaluation and Ratification of Judges and
Prosecutors (Resolutions No. 043-2000-CNM and No. 241-2002-CNM) all made it impossible to file
administrative or judicial appeals against the decisions taken by the National Judicial Council. Despite this, the
alleged victim of petition 320-03 filed an appeal on constitutional grounds that was dismissed in the last
instance by the Constitutional Court, taking into account the existing legal framework that was already cited.
Likewise, the alleged victim of petition 948-04 filed an appeal on constitutional grounds against the call for
renewal, which was ruled inadmissible in the last instance of the Constitutional Court, on the basis of the abovementioned legal framework.
43.
As for the alleged victims of petitions 739-08 and 1065-08, they filed appeals on constitutional
grounds, on the basis of the change in legislation and jurisprudence that took place on December 1, 2004 and
August 12, 2005, respectively, which made it possible to file appeals on constitutional grounds against the
decisions of the CNM. Thus, the petitioner Jean Aubert Alvarado Díaz filed an appeal on constitutional grounds
on December 6, 2006, and the petitioner Marta Silvana Rodríguez Ricse filed said appeal on December 11, 2006.
Nevertheless, when these appeals on constitutional grounds reached the Constitutional Court, the latter
dismissed them, indicating that when they were not renewed in July and June 2001, they had lost their status
as prosecutors, so that one way or another they were aware of the fact and were legally capable of challenging
the termination of their employment, and that therefore by filing the appeal on constitutional grounds six years
later, “the statute of limitations had come into effect, because the time-limits set forth in Article 44 of the
Constitutional Proceedings Code, that is, 60 days, had been by far exceeded.
44.
The Commission found that, at the time that CNM issued the resolutions of nonrenewal
between 2001 and 2002, there was a ban in the legal framework on filing judicial and administrative appeals
against the decisions taken by the CNM. Therefore, the alleged victims did not benefit from a rapid and effective
remedy to challenge their nonrenewal. Furthermore, although, as alleged by the State, the legislation and
jurisprudence changed to make it possible to file appeals on constitutional grounds against the decisions taken
by the CNM, this did not provide the already affected parties the possibility of benefiting from said changes.
Indeed, the Constitutional Court established, with respect to the alleged victims of petitions 739-08 and 106508, that they should have filed an appeal on constitutional grounds within 60 days following notification of the
resolution of nonrenewal by the CNM, although at that time the judicial, constitutional, legal and jurisprudence
framework banned said possibility.
45.
With respect to what has been described, the IACHR considers that there were reasons of law
why remedies under domestic law were not available to the petitioners, as a result of which the latter are