3 competence of the Court covers both the American Convention and “other treaties concerning the protection of human rights in the American States” (Article 64.1). 15. Once the rule for the intervention of the Commission and the Court in matters to be heard under contentious proceedings has been posed in this way, it is in order to indicate that there are exceptions to this limitation of material competence. These exceptions are to be found in other instruments of our human rights protection system. 16. An exception of this nature appears in the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. Article 8, in fine, authorizes access “to international fora whose competence has been recognized by (that) State” to whom the violation of the said treaty has been attributed. The Court has had the opportunity to make a pronouncement on this point in the Paniagua Morales et al. Case (Judgment of March 8, 1998, para. 136 and the third ruling, and the Villagrán Morales et al. Case (Judgment of November 19, 1999, paras. 247-252 and the seventh ruling). Sergio García-Ramírez Judge Manuel E. Ventura-Robles Secretary