3
is lack of proper investigation, Article 8 was also infringed). If the Court does not have
jurisdiction, because on the time, over the case to declare the violation of a "material"
right, it can, however, refer to the infringement of an "instrumental" right as long as
the obligation to investigate as a result of the illegal act (not subject to the
competence of the Court) derives from a body of law different from the ACHR and said
obligation remains in force, since it is still pending in the stage recognized by the
Court’s jurisdiction.
9. There is still the possibility, though, that Article 8(1) has been violated directly
without being subjected to the Court’s jurisdiction or without the declaration of the
Court regarding the existence of violation of "material" rights established in the
Convention. This situation is proposed whenever:
a) the plaintiff turns to the State to assert a right different from the ones established in
the convention and the State disregards its petition. In the case in point, the denial of
access constitutes, in itself, a violation of Articles 8(1) and the Court should so declare,
in conjunction, of course, with Article 1(1) (the right of access to justice is protected,
as any conventional rights, by the duty of the State to respect and guarantee) and
without any mention to other rights and liberties enshrined in the Convention.
b) it has been argued the violation of a “material” right of the Convention, but the
Court does not provide the elements to declare that said violation effectively existed,
though there are elements to establish that, having invoked an illegal act attributable
(hypothetically) to the State, the State fails to comply with its duty to investigate.
Therefore, the Court could not refer in its Judgment to the infringement of Article 8
conjunction with the "violation" of certain "material" right, but only, respectively,
the violation of such as a result of: i) the plaintiff’s claim of rights not established
the Convention or ii) the “alleged” violation (not proved before the Court) of
Conventional right.
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10. In the Case of Escué-Zapata v. Colombia, it was not outlined the possibility or the
adequacy of applying Articles 8 and 25, pointing out the existence of different
violations according to each of them or asserting that only one of them has been
infringed. Nevertheless, in different occasions it has been noted the existence of two
different points of view regarding this issue: one of them asserts the infringement of
Articles 8 and 25; the other one, considers the violation of Article 8, not of Article 25.
To such respect, I would like to comment:
a) Article 8, more comprising, establishes the ordinary access to justice and
enumerates its terms, the general (8(1)) as well as the one referring to the criminal
prosecution (in broad sense) (8(2)), whose guarantees have been projected by the
Court's jurisprudence in other ways of judicial or parajudicial protection, where
applicable. This elaboration, which I think it is reasonable, contributes to outline and
improve the protection of the person demanding justice.
b) Article 25, with a broader sense, deals with a crucial aspect of the access to justice.
The effective recourse for the protection of fundamental rights (not of any rights, such
as the example of Article 8) that in the Mexican tradition (reflected in the words of
Article 25 of the Convention) corresponds to the writ of amparo. It is understood that
the proceedings related to the defense of fundamental rights must comply with the
guarantees established in Article 8.
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