(b)
The situation of Mr. Flaviano Martínez López, who filed a labor claim with the
Secretariat of Labor in La Ceiba on April 13, 1993, and obtained a favorable judgment on
October 22, 1996. Nonetheless, to date it has yet to be enforced.
(c)
The impossibility of acceding to domestic remedies due to the alleged situation
of vulnerability of the alleged victims and their next-of-kin (disability and extreme poverty);
lack of adequate public services; the costs of administrative and judicial procedures; and
geographic isolation.
33.
The Court has established that the effectiveness of remedies is gauged based
on their capacity to produce the result for which they were established 33; in this regard, the
Court has also mentioned that domestic remedies must be adequate. 34
34.
The Commission observes that the facts alleged in the instant case are
related to the effective protection of the rights to life, humane treatment, judicial protection,
and access to justice of the divers from the Miskitu indigenous people who live in the
department of Gracias a Dios. In this regard, the Inter-American Court has established that
the judge has the duty to move the proceeding along 35, such that he must consider the facts
alleged and their context so as to conduct it in the most diligent possible manner, determine
what has happened, and, if relevant, establish the responsibilities and reparations in the
case.36 In addition, the case-law of the inter-American human rights system has determined
that as regards the indigenous peoples, the States must grant effective protection that takes
into account their own particularities, their economic and social characteristics, as well as
their special situation of vulnerability, customary law, values, and uses and customs. 37
35.
In addition, the Commission observes that in the area of labor justice, Article
669 of the Labor Code of Honduras38 establishes that que when they are called on to intervene
by legal means, the labor courts must act on their own initiative to give impetus to the normal
course of matter submitted to them.
33 I/A Court H.R., Case of Velásquez Rodríguez. Judgment of July 29, 1988. Series C No. 4,
para. 66. Case of Durand and Ugarte. Preliminary exceptions. Judgment of May 28, 1999.
Series C No. 50, para. 34 in fine. See also, inter alia, IACHR. Case 10,956. Luis Felipe Bravo
Mena (Mexico). Report No. 14/93, of October 7, 1993, s/p; Case 11,142. Arturo Ribón Avila
(Colombia). Report No. 26/97, of September 30, 1997, para. 57 in fine; Case 10,970. Raquel
Martín de Mejía (Peru). Report No. 5/96, of March 1, 1996.
34 “Adequate domestic remedies are those which are suitable to address an infringement of
a legal right.…” I/A Court H.R., Case of Velásquez Rodríguez, supra note 57, para. 64. Case
of Caballero Delgado and Santana. Judgment of January 21, 1994. Series C No. 17, para. 63;
Exceptions to the Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies (Arts. 46(1), 46(2)(a) and 46(2)(b)
American Convention on Human Rights). Advisory Opinion OC-11/90. para. 36
35 I/A Court H.R., Case of Myrna Mack Chang. Judgment of November 25, 2003. Series C No.
101, para. 107.
36 I/A Court H.R., Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters. Judgment of March 1, 2005. Series C No.
120., para. 88.
37 I/A Court H.R., Case of the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community. Judgment of June 17, 2005.
Series C No. 125, para. 63.
38 Article 669 of the Labor Code of Honduras: The labor courts, once their first intervention
is sought legally, shall act on their own initiative and shall seek to abbreviate to the extent
possible the normal course of the matters submitted to them for their cognizance. Their firm
judgments shall have the authority of res judicata.