6
1.
That the petitioner complied with the exhaustion of domestic remedies
requirement by presenting a writ of habeas corpus, the final decision on which was
communicated to him on January 14, 1987.
2.
That the period of six months referred to in Article 46(1)(b) of the Convention
expired on July 14, 1987.
3.
That the Commission received the petition on September 1, 1987, to wit,
more than a month after the expiration of the six-month period.
4.
That, according to the Convention and the Statute of the Commission, this
six-month period is not of a procedural nature since it is contained in the part of the
Convention relating to II. Means of Protection - Chapter VII. Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights - Section 3. Competence. Consequently, I reiterate
that this period has been established in order to determine the jurisdiction of the
Commission, an aspect that, according to the Preamble of the Convention,
constitutes the essential purpose of the treaty and cannot be modified by the organs
entrusted with its implementation, that is to say, by the Commission and the Court.
5.
The Commission did not observe and, in fact, failed to comply with the
Convention, its Statute and its Regulations, none of which grant it arbitrary or
discretionary powers in the area of jurisdiction, as can be seen from the applicable
normative provisions transcribed above.
6.
That in view of the fact that the Commission admitted the petition or
complaint outside of the period established by the Convention, a situation that no
declaration of the parties can validate since it is a matter of nonobservance of an
express norm of the Convention, there is no basis for the Court to attach the
importance it does to the note of the Government of Peru dated September 29,
1989, appearing on page 194 of the main case file, in its judgment on the
preliminary objections in the instant case, which was adopted by majority vote.
7.
That this irregularity is alleged by the Government of Peru on September 24,
1990, in a report appearing on pages 168 to 172 of the main case file before the
Commission, as follows:
[. . .]
1. The first observation that the Government of Peru must
make with regard to the resolution in questions relates to point 1 of
same, which states:
‘To admit the petition bringing the instant case.’
It should be pointed out here that, according to the text of that
resolution, the complaint bears the date August 1, 1987 (even so,
there is room for doubt as to whether the text of the resolution
contains a material error, since information provided would indicate
that the complaint was not brought until September 1).
The Commission admitted the petition on the assumption that
domestic remedies had been exhausted. As a matter of fact, on
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