CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE SERGIO GARCÍA-RAMÍREZ IN THE JUDGMENT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CASE OF LÓPEZ ÁLVAREZ v. HONDURAS, OF FEBRUARY 1, 2006 I. THE DUE PROCESS 1. The due process constitutes an instrumental and secondary guarantee that becomes, in all honesty, material and primary, as an “access key” to the national and international protection of the rights and the claim on the duties. Its relevance has been constantly pointed out. The jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court has done it, and it has been pointed out by different members of this Tribunal. The judge Alirio Abreu Burelli observes that “the due process, fundamental guarantee of the human being is also a guarantee of respect for the other rights” (“Responsibility of the judge and human rights”, in Revista de Derecho. Supreme Court of Justice, No. 19, Caracas, Venezuela, 2005, p. 44), and the judge Cecilia Medina Quiroga points out that “the due process is an angular stone of the human right’s protection system; it is, by excellence, the guarantee of all human rights and a requirement sine qua non for the existence of a Constitutional State” (The American Convention: theory and jurisprudence. Life, personal integrity, due process, and judicial recourse, University of Chile, Law School, Human Rights Center, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2003, p. 267). 2. The matters of the due process keep on appearing in a significant manner in the jurisdictional work of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights: meaningful in a double dimension; on one hand, in what refers to the number of cases in which matters of the due process are discussed; on the other hand, in what refers to the subject of cases --and even of the advisory opinions --, that concur to form a good part of the Inter-American case-law, with a notable repercussion –growing and evident, in the last years – in the judgments of many national courts. 3. In different Concurring and reasoned opinions I have taken up these matters. I have also done so, in some recent presentations on behalf of the Inter-American Court or in relation to its tasks: thus, the XII Encounter of Presidents and Magistrates of the Constitutional Courts and Constitutional Chambers of Latin America “The constitutional guarantees of the criminal due process”, summoned by the Supreme Court of Uruguay and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Punta del Este, Uruguay, October 10-14, 2005), and the “International Training Course on Reforms to the System of Criminal Justice in Latin America”, organized by the Latin American Institute of the United Nations for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of the Criminal, Institute of the United Nations for Asia and the Far East for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of the Criminal and the International Cooperation Agency of Japan (San Jose, Costa Rica, July 27, 2005). 4. On those opportunities, among others, I have mentioned the quantitative importance of this matter in the Inter-American Court on Human Rights’ case-law. The statistics recollected by it –that is now found in the volume The Inter-American Court on Human Rights. A Quarter of a Century. 1979-2004 (San Jose, Costa Rica, 2006), which puts in evidence that the Tribunal has declared the existence of a violation to Article 8 (“Right to a Fair Trial”) of the American Convention on Human Rights in 43 cases, which are the great majority on which it has issued a ruling, as well as the