specified in the Judgment of Albán Cornejo v. Ecuador, criteria that consists in
that “[n]otwithstanding the aforementioned, the statute of limitations is
inadmissible in connection with and inapplicable to a criminal action where
gross human rights violations in the terms of International Law are involved.
So has been held in the Court’s constant and consistent decisions.” 125 In the
instant case, the inapplicability of the statute of limitations was not declared
because it involved medical negligence and for not complying with the Court’s
criteria. In a more recent manner, in the Judgment of the Court in the case of
Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña v. Bolivia, said criteria was established upon
stating that “in some circumstances, International Law considers the statute
of limitations to be inadmissible and inapplicable, as well as amnesty
provisions and the establishment of exceptions to responsibility, in order to
maintain the States punishing authority in force against conduct where the
gravity makes repression necessary in order to avoid repeated commission of
said conduct.” 126 This criteria, specifically, the non-admissibility of a statute
of limitations, was applied in the mentioned case in regard to “the torture and
murder committed during a context of massive and systematic human rights
violations.”127 Now, though this did not regard a case in which the criminal
statute of limitations had been argued, in the Judgment also issued recently,
in the case of Gomes Lund et al. (Guerrilha do Araguaia) v. Brazil, the Court
reiterated that “[…] the statute of limitation provisions […] that are intended
to prevent the investigation and punish those responsible for serious
violations to human rights such as torture, summary, extrajudicial, or
arbitrary executions, and enforced disappearance are not admissible, all of
which are prohibited for contravening irrevocable rights recognized by
International Law of Human Rights.”128 This jurisprudence was also
maintained in the last case before the Court wherein serious violations were
alleged, namely, Gelman v. Uruguay.129 From the foregoing, it is evident that
the inadmissibility of statutes of limitations in the Court’s jurisprudence has
usually been declared due to the particularities of cases that involve serious
human rights violations, such as forced disappearance, the extrajudicial killing
of persons, and torture. In some of those cases, the human rights violations
occurred in a context of massive and systematic violations.
118. In relation to point b), the Court deems that any human rights
violation involves a level of severity by its own nature, because it implies a
breach of certain State obligations to respect and guarantee the rights and
freedoms for people. However, this should not be confused with what the
Court throughout its jurisprudence has deemed to be “serious violations of
human rights” which, as is clear from the provisions above (supra para. 117),
have their own connotation and consequences. To accept the point made by
the Commission, in the sense that by its nature this case involves a level of
gravity for which the statute of limitations is inapplicable, would imply that
any case before the Court, as all cases involve violations of human rights in
125
Case of Albán Cornejo et al. V. Ecuador, supra note 38, para. 111.
126
Cf. Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña V. Bolivia, supra note 94, para. 207.
127
Cf. Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña V. Bolivia, supra note 94, para. 208.
128
Cf. Case of Gomes Lund et al. (Guerrilha do Araguaia) V. Brazil, supra note 4, para. 171.
129
Cf. Case of Gelman V. Uruguay, supra note 12, para. 225.
46
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