B.2. Right to judicial protection
103. The Court has noted that Article 25(1) of the Convention includes an obligation for
States Parties to guarantee that all persons subject to their jurisdiction have access to a
simple, expeditious, effective remedy against acts that violate their fundamental rights.113
The Court has further asserted that if a remedy is to be considered effective, it is not
sufficient for it to be provided under the Constitution or laws or for it to be formally
admissible, but rather it must be truly effective for determining whether there has been a
violation of human rights and providing redress. A remedy which proves illusory because of
the general conditions prevailing in the country, or even in the particular circumstances of
a given case, cannot be considered effective.114 This may happen when, for example, a
remedy has proven useless in practice because the judicial body lacks the means to enforce
its judgments, or in any other situation in which justice is being denied.115 The process
should produce real protection of the right recognized in the judicial ruling by means of
enforcement.116
104. The Court has also understood Article 8(1) of the Convention to mean that the State
must guarantee that a decision reached through the proper channels should meet the
purpose for which the procedure was intended. This does not suggest that claims will always
be upheld, but that the State must guarantee that the procedure is able to produce the
result for which it was created.117 In earlier cases of congressional dismissal of judges, the
Court has held that the dismissal procedures undertaken before the Congress, subject to
legal provisions that should be observed rigorously, may themselves be subject to a judicial
appeal on due process of law.118 It said specifically, in the Constitutional Court v. Peru case,
“[t]his control does not imply an evaluation of the acts of a strictly political nature that the
Constitution attributes to the Legislature.”119
105. The Court recalls in the instant case that on December 2, 2004, the Constitutional
Court delivered a ruling that ordered any judge receiving a request for a remedy of amparo
against the decision to dismiss the members of the TSE or similar legislative acts to “deny
them outright and hold them inadmissible, as otherwise, they would be hearing a case in
violation of an express law, which would result in legal liability.” The Court notes that this
decision was adopted under an “Order” of the Constitutional Court sitting en banc, the
members of which has been appointed subsequent to Resolution 25-160 of the National
Congress, by which the members sitting on the court until November 25, 2004 had been
removed (supra para. 44).
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 Colindres Schonenberg v. El Salvador, supra, para.
101.
113
Cf. Case of Ivcher Bronstein v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of February 06, 2001;
Series C No. 7, para. 137, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El Salvador, supra, para. 101.
114
115
Cf. Case of Las Palmeras v. Colombia. Merits. Judgment of November 29, 2001. Series C No. 96, para.
58, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El Salvador, supra, para. 101.
116
Cf. Case of Baena Ricardo et al. v. Panama. Competence. Judgment of November 28, 2003; Series C No.
104, para. 73, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El Salvador, supra, para. 101.
117
Cf. Cf. Case of Barbani Duarte et al. v. Uruguay. Merits, Reparations, and Costs. Judgment of October
13, 2011; Series C No. 234, para. 122, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El Salvador, supra, para. 102.
Cf. Case of the Constitutional Court v. Peru, supra, para. 94, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El
Salvador, supra, para. 103.
118
119
Cf. Case of the Constitutional Court v. Peru, supra, para. 94, and Case of Colindres Schonenberg v. El
Salvador, supra, para. 103.
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