CONCURRING VOTE OF JUDGES DIEGO GARCÍA-SAYÁN AND SERGÍO GARCÍA
RAMÍREZ, IN THE CASE OF TICONA ESTRADA ET AL. (BOLIVIA)
1. The Judges who deliver this opinion wish to express, first, our total agreement with
the opinions of the other members of the Inter-American Court as to the main
statements contained in the judgment of the case of Ticona Estrada (Bolivia) of
November 27, 2008: The State violated the principles of the American Convention on
Human Rights to which this Judgment refers. In this sense, there is no discrepancy
among the members of the Tribunal or objection or difference. The judgment reveals
the unanimous opinion of the seven Judges that heard and solved this case.
2. We would like to put on record our appreciation for the fact that the Ombudsman of
the Bolivia has acted in representation of the victims before the Inter-American
Court139 to protect "... the promotion, enforcement, punishment and defense of human
rights”. We consider – according to the statements made in the hearing on merits held
in Montevideo, Uruguay, on August 13, 2008 --, that this represents a step ahead for
the Inter-American system for the protection of human rights. In this system, there
are actors who are traditionally committed to preserve the fundamental rights: the
State in itself, the Organization of American States, the civil society and the
institutions that the society constitutes to such end.
3. It is also worth taking into account, today, the presence of new agents for the
protection of the rights, who are called “emerging actors”. Among them, we can find
the institution of the Ombudsman, which forms part of the State but who may and
must act to insure and defend these rights -- duty that reveals its institutional
orientation and it is what it lives for --, as it happened in the instant case. In this
sense, the ombudsman constitutes – like the public defenders – an “emerging actor” of
great importance whose performance within the international level, which must
become more frequent and intense, will significantly contribute to improve the
conditions for the effective access to justice of those people who could hardly resort to
the Inter-American Commission and Court. The fact that in the last ten years it has
been asserted the decision to constitute institutions of that kind, which already work in
139
Act Nº 1818, passed on December 22, 1997.