9
[I] take the liberty of informing Your Excellency that the Commission, acting at the
request of your Government and in order to ensure that no questions arise as to the
correct application of the proceedings, as well as to protect the interests of both parties
(the Government and the petitioners), has decided for the time being to withdraw the
case from the Court, in order to present it again at some future date, after the
observations presented by your Government with regard to the instant case have been
properly assessed.
Please find enclosed the observations of the petitioners. I would greatly
appreciate your taking the necessary steps to provide the Commission with the
Government’s final observations, as provided in Article 34(8) of the Regulations of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, within 60 days of the date of transmittal
of this letter.
29.
By note of August 26, 1991, Peru replied to the Commission, in part as
follows:
[. . .]
From the contents of your communication it would appear that the Government of Peru
had requested the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to reconsider the case.
That is inaccurate, for at no time did Peru interpose such a motion, neither as regards the
case itself nor as regards the decision to submit the case to the jurisdiction of the InterAmerican Court.
The possibility of reconsidering a report already vacated is not
contemplated in the American Convention on Human Rights nor in the Regulations of the
Commission when the State in question is a Party to the Convention and has accepted
the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as is the case of Peru. This
is especially true of a case that has already been previously submitted to the Court.
The Government of Peru did point out to the Commission the advisability of not
submitting the case to the Court, considering the serious procedural omissions incurred
in the drafting of its Report No. 29/91, which are precisely those which, among others,
served to buttress the decision of the full Commission to submit the joint cases. In other
words, the decision to reconsider the case is unilateral and does not comply with the
procedural rules in force.
[. . .]
30.
On October 27, 1991, the Commission approved Report Nº 1/91, which
literally states the following:
HAVING SEEN:
1.
Report No. 29/91 adopted by the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights on February 20, 1991, referring to cases 10.264, 10.206, 10.276 and
10.446.
2.
That on May 27, 1991, the Government of Peru filed a brief wherein it
‘requests that the Commission comply with its Regulations and the Pact of San Jose and
therefore decide not to take the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
without first weighing the observations made in the present note and making the
appropriate procedural corrections.’ In that note, the Government of Peru stated that ‘In
accordance with the express provisions of Article 34, paragraphs 7 and 8 of the
Commission’s Regulations, once the reply was received from the petitioners, the
Commission should have transmitted the pertinent parts thereof and its attachments to
the Government of Peru for its final observations. None of the petitioners’ replies to the
Government’s notes were transmitted to the Government. Hence, by violating that
procedural requirement, the Commission has denied the Peruvian state its right to self
defense.’
CONSIDERING: