100. In relation to Article 25(1) of the Convention, this Court has indicated that it
establishes the obligations of the States Parties to ensure to all persons the right to simple
and prompt recourse, or any other effective recourse, to a competent court or tribunal for
protection against acts that violate their fundamental rights.104 Regarding the effectiveness of
the remedy, the Court has established that it is not sufficient that this be established by the
Constitution or the law, or that it be formally admissible; rather, it must be truly appropriate
to establish whether a human rights violation has been committed and to provide the
necessary means to redress this. Remedies that, due to the general situation of the country
or even the particular circumstances of any given case, prove illusory cannot be considered
effective. This may happen when, for example, they prove to be useless in practice because
the means to execute decisions are lacking, or in any other situation in which justice is
denied.105
101. Additionally, when evaluating the effectiveness of remedies, the Court must verify
whether the decisions that were taken have truly contributed to ending a situation that
violated rights, to ensure the non-repetition of the harmful acts, and the free and full exercise
of the rights protected by the Convention.106 Consequently, the Court does not assess the
effectiveness of the remedies filed based on an eventual decision favorable to the victim.
102. The analysis of the arguments presented by the Commission and the representatives
reveals that the dispute in this case relates to the effectiveness of the application for amparo
against the decisions of the National Council of the Judiciary. In this regard, the Court finds
that the Peruvian Constitution established that the decisions of the National Council of the
Judiciary were not subject to review and the judges interpreted that the only admissible
measure to contest them was the application for amparo for violations of due process. Indeed,
in this specific case, Mr. Cordero Bernal filed an application for amparo which was declared
inadmissible in first and second instance, considering that the decision by which he was
dismissed revealed a thorough examination of the disciplinary proceeding and was sufficiently
substantiated.107 Subsequently, the Constitutional Court considered that the disciplinary
proceeding guaranteed due process and declared the application unfounded.
103. In this case, the judges of the amparo procedure examined the decision adopted by
the CNM and concluded that it was duly substantiated and that the right to due process had
not been violated. This means that it indicated that the judges examined Mr. Cordero’s claims
and determined that they were not admissible. In this Court’s opinion, the conclusions reached
by the judges of the amparo procedure were not manifestly arbitrary or unreasonable; also,
as indicated in the preceding paragraphs, the analysis of whether a remedy is effective does
not depend on an eventual decision favorable to the interests of the presumed victims.
104. Consequently, the Court finds that the State of Peru did not violate the right to judicial
protection contained in Article 25(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights, in relation
to Articles 1(1) and 2 of this instrument, to the detriment of Hector Fidel Cordero Bernal.
Cf. Case of Mejía Idrovo v. Ecuador. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of
July 5, 2011, Series C No. 228, para. 95, and Case of Casa Nina v. Peru, supra, para. 116.
104
Cf. Case of Las Palmeras v. Colombia. Merits. Judgment of December 6, 2001. Series C No. 90, para. 58,
and Case of Martínez Esquivia v. Colombia, supra, para. 130.
105
Cf. Case of Ramírez Escobar et al. v. Guatemala. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of March 9, 2018.
Series C No. 351, para. 252, and Case of López Mendoza v. Venezuela. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of
September 1, 2011. Series C No. 233, para. 184.
106
107
Cf. Decision of November 27, 1996, issued by the First Public Law Court (evidence file, folios 1380 to 1383).
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