These limits to the military criminal jurisdiction and its correct application must be
observed by the State of Guatemala, derived from the full acknowledgment of the
jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and therefore the binding
nature its judgments has on the Guatemalan State when it is part of a proceeding
before that Court. Thus, these parameters should be seriously taken into
consideration when the discussion on a new military criminal law is taken up again in
Guatemala. In the meantime, the case of Tiu Tojín v. Guatemala shall also act as a
parameter or reference for the Supreme Court of Justice when it carries out all the
steps it must complete in order to fully comply with Decree 41-96 of the Congress of
the Republic through which Article 2 of Decree 214-1878 (Military Code) was
reformed and therefore finally achieve that “the military jurisdiction be applied only
to the members of the armed institution that commit crimes of a military order that
affect the army” (third considering clause of the previously mentioned Decree 4196), since, as observed in this case, at least on this opportunity almost twelve years
went by since the Military Code was reformed and the mentioned reform was not
effectively put into action.
D.- Jus Cogens To conclude this concurring separate opinion, the consideration
made by the court in paragraph 91 of this Judgment is especially relevant. This
taking into account that some domestic judgments of the Guatemalan jurisdiction
(for example the judgment issued in case file number 3380-2007 of the
Constitutionality Court) have avoided considering or remembering the grave nature
of the offense of forced disappearance and they have wanted to define or classify it
as a political crime or as related to a political crime. As correctly stated by the Court,
pursuant with the preamble of the Inter-American Convention on Forced
Disappearance, of which Guatemala is a State Party, the systematic practice of the
forced disappearance of people constitutes a crime against humanity and is also an
offense of a continuous and non-extinguishable nature, which entails the
consequences established by the applicable international law.
“…the jus cogens, in my understanding, is an open category, which expands itself to
the extent that the universal juridical conscience (material source of all Law) awakens
for the necessity to protect the rights inherent to each human being in every and any
127
situation" (para. 68).
I believe that the Judgment in the case of Tiu Tojín v. Guatemala refers to this
definition of “jus cogens”.
For all the aforementioned reasons as well as other important considerations
included in the judgment of the case sub judice and that I personally praise due to
the positive impact they should have on the Guatemalan system for the
administration of justice, such as the correct criminal definition of the crime of forced
disappearance by the national courts; of the right to a fair trial with “cultural
pertinence” when dealing with people who belong to indigenous groups who require
said access; as well as the impossibility to argue “State secrecy” and “reasons of
national safety” when dealing with violations to human rights; therefore, I fully
agree, from beginning to end, with the judgment issued on this day.
127
Concurring opinion of Judge Cancado Trinidade, in Juridical Condition and Rights of the Undocumented
Migrants. Advisory Opinion OC-18/03 of September 17, 2003. Series A No. 18.
49
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents