and on the basis of sound judgment. The object and receipt thereof shall be defined in
the operative paragraph of this Order (infra Operative Paragraph one).
11.
Moreover, in its definitive list, the Inter-American Commission indicated that
the expert opinion of Mrs. Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez would allow the Tribunal to
consider the elements regarding the specific impact that an internal armed conflict
may have on an indigenous village, “which, in addition, is considered to be
counterinsurgent and a military target”. Moreover, said expert opinion would provide
“elements with the Court regarding the multiple acts of violence suffered by the Maya
people and how such acts affected their culture, taking into account the standards
applicable to the rights of indigenous people". The Presidency considers pertinent to
admit the expert opinion to be rendered by Mrs. Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez, since some
of the aspects of the object thereof are related to issues of the Inter-American public
order, specially in relation to the alleged impact on the culture of the Mayan
indigenous people in alleged contexts of internal violence, in light of the rights of
indigenous peoples”. The foregoing goes beyond the specific interests of the parties to
the instant case. The object and receipt of this expert opinion shall be defined in the
operative paragraph of this Order (infra Operative Paragraph five).
12. Moreover, the Presidency considers pertinent to admit the expert opinion to be
rendered by Fredy Armando Peccerelli Monterroso, given that the evidence offered
may contribute to strengthen the needs for protection of the Inter-American System of
Human Rights, by means of the establishment of general parameters regarding the
State's obligations within the framework of exhumation proceedings, which goes
beyond the specific interests of the parties in a specific case, involving all of its
member, for which it significantly affects the Inter-American public order of the human
rights.4 Such expert opinion shall be assessed in time fashion, within the context of the
existing body of evidence and based on sound judgment. The object and receipt of said
expert opinion shall be defined in the operative paragraphs of this Order (infra
Operative Paragraph 1).
B.
Request of the Inter-American Commission to interrogate one of the
expert witnesses offered by the representatives
13. The representatives proposed Mr. Michael Paul Hermann Mörth as expert witness
in order for him to refer to “the length and thoroughness of the investigation in the
instant case; the lack of good will in the investigations into the first trials; the poor
conditions to conduct investigations into facts of such an importance; as well as the
lack of the Guatemalan judiciary in relation to the legal classification of the facts and
the lack of legal technical capacity of the judges to judge grave human rights
violations”.
14. The Inter-American Commission requested to interrogate expert witness
Hermann Mörth “as long as his opinion relates to the expert opinion of Juan Méndez
[…]”, upon considering that “both expert opinions are of the Inter-American public
order” and because “they would allow the Court to have a comprehensive view of the
crime of genocide and of the response given at the Guatemalan judicial level”.
4
See Case of El Mozote Massacres V. El Salvador. Order of the Court’s President, supra note 3,
considering clause twenty-one.
5