VIII-1
RIGHTS TO JUDICIAL GUARANTEES AND TO JUDICIAL PROTECTION IN RELATION TO THE
DUTY TO RESPECT AND GUARANTEE THE RIGHTS AND TO ADOPT PROVISIONS OF
DOMESTIC LAW 81
A.
Arguments of the parties and of the Commission
68. With respect to the proceedings to reclaim the amounts due for all the former maritime, port
and river workers, the Commission indicated that, on March 11, 1991, the CCTM was dissolved and
those workers were laid off. After the filing of the first writ of amparo against the CCTM so that the
amounts owed be correctly calculated, the proceedings culminated on February 12, 1992 with the
decision of the Supreme Court. The Commission added that the Sixth Civil Court did not approve,
until August 20, 2003, the settlement of the statements that had been presented by the workers on
January 10, 1995 and that it was not until June 2004 that the State authorized the MEF to make
gradual payments of the amounts. It noted that the payments began twelve years after the Supreme
Court’s decision and that it was not until December 2017 that the payments were completed, which
is a violation of the right to effective judicial protection.
69. The Commission also pointed out that there was a sub-group of workers who, beginning in
March 2010, continued to judicially claim the amounts not included or incorrectly calculated. With
regard to this sub-group’s claim, it stated that, as recently as July 1, 2016, the Expert Report
determined the amounts still owed, a decision that was later confirmed by the Standing Civil Chamber
of the Superior Court and that, on May 23, 2017, that court ordered its compliance. The Commission
noted that this order to comply begun in 2010 added seven years to the 18 years that had elapsed
since the Supreme Court’s decision in 1992. Moreover, the Commission claimed that the payment
ordered for this sub-group was not made. It also argued that to require each worker to individually
accredit the amounts owed before the corresponding court and again bring a case would be
incompatible with the right to judicial protection.
70. The Commission concluded that the State did not adopt the necessary measures to implement
a judicial decision favorable to the workers and that, therefore, it violated and continues to violate
the right of the former maritime, port and river workers to effective judicial protection due to the
failure to enforce a decision in their favor, as well as the ineffectiveness of the judicial mechanisms
to achieve such compliance, which did not meet the standards of simplicity and promptness required
by the Convention. The foregoing, under the terms of the Convention, presupposes a violation of its
Article 25(1) and 25(2)(c), read in conjunction with Article 1(1) thereof. In addition, the Commission
concluded that the State is also responsible for violating the right to a reasonable time established
in Article 8(1) of the Convention, in relation to the obligations established in Article 1(1). Finally, the
Commission considered that the case of the workers represented by FEMAPOR is “one more example
of an overall structural issue in Peru that consists in non-compliance with court judgments” made worse by “a
practice by which the judicial authorities in charge of the execution of those decisions do not take the necessary
measures to resolve fundamental issues regarding the implementation of the judgments, nor does it implement
coercive mechanisms to ensure such compliance, thus materializing the right to effective judicial protection.” The
Commission underscores that the State did not adopt for the workers of FEMAPOR and “has failed to adopt the
necessary overall measures to remediate this situation and to prevent its reiteration.” Therefore, it concluded
that the State also is responsible for violating Article 2 of the Convention.
71. The representatives Valdivia Ayala, Guerrero Cassuso, Rossi Mérida and Valdivia
Bocanegra added that, from 1990 to date, successive governments have not complied with their
81
Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights, read in conjunction with Articles 1(1) and 2 thereof.
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