3
discrimination (paras. 97-101 and 110-111). I issued an extensive Concurring
Opinion on this significant progress made in the Court´s case law (paras. 1-89). In
the instant case of Baldeón-García v. Peru, the Court could –and should- have made
progress, but it did not; the Court acknowledged the violations of Articles 4(1) and
5(1) and (2) of the Convention (operative paragraphs No. 2-4 of this Judgment), but
at the same time, -and unanimously, as in the recent case of Pueblo Bello Massacre
v. Colombia (2006)– of Articles 8(1) and 25, considered as a whole, all of them
relating to Article 1(1) of the Convention.
8. On this last aspect (operating paragraph no. 5), in this Judgment the Court found
that:
“(…) Based on the above, the Court considers that no effective remedy was available to
guarantee, within a reasonable time, the right, to fair trial to the next of kin of Mr.
Baldeón-García in compliance with legal safeguards” (para. 155).
This obiter dictum of the Court undoubtedly reflects its unanimous understanding of
the close and inevitable relation between Articles 8(1) and 25 of the American
Convention.
9.
In my opinion, the right to fair trial is also part of the realm of the
international jus cogens. As I explained in my Separate Opinion on the recent case of
Pueblo Bello Massacre v. Colombia (Judgment of January 31, 2006):
"The impossibility to segregate Article 25 from Article 8, both of the American Convention
(…), involves the need to consider the right to fair trial, understood as full access to
justice, as part of the realm of the jus cogens, i.e. the intangibility of all legal safeguards
belong to the realm of the jus cogens as set forth in Articles 25 and 8, considered as a
whole. There is no doubt that the fundamental safeguards, common to the International
Law of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, are universal in nature since
they are applicable in any and all circumstances, they embody compulsory laws (as part of
the jus cogens), and purport erga omnes obligations to protect.
After that landmark Advisory Opinion no. 18, on the Juridical Condition and Rights of
Undocumented Migrants of 2003, the Court could -and should- have made qualitative
progress on precedent setting. I dare nurse the hope that the Court will do so as soon as
possible if it effectively continues supporting its avant-garde precedents, -instead of
attempting to limit them- and will courageously further on the progress made based on
the aforementioned Advisory Opinion no. 18 aimed at continuously broadening the
material scope of the jus cogens" (paras. 64-65).
10.
Also in my recent Separate Opinion (paras. 52-55) in the case of LópezÁlvarez v. Honduras (Judgment of February 01, 2006), I restated my idea that the
right to justice (the right to fair trial lato sensu) is a compulsory element of the jus
cogens. The Court could –and should- have established so in the instant case;
instead, it repeated prior obiter dicta. Thus, the Court lost the opportunity to step
forward regarding its precedent setting process.
11.
I will go even further. In my opinion, as I explained above, we are referring to
compulsory laws; therefore, the State's obligations to prevent, investigate and
punish perpetrators are not mere obligations "to act in a given manner, but not to
achieve a given result," as stated by the Court in paragraph 93 of this Judgment. I
dissent in this reasoning from the majority of the Court.
12.
As I indicated in my Separate Opinion (para. 23) in the recent Judgment of
the Court of March 29, 2006, in the city of Brasilia, in the case of Sawhoyamaxa
Indigenous Community v. Paraguay: