SEPARATE OPINION OF JUDGE A.A. CANÇADO TRINDADE
1.
I have concurred with my vote to the adoption of the present Judgment of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, regarding the request for interpretation of
the Judgment on the Case of the Moiwana Community versus Suriname, only
because the Court has shown itself willing to “resolve” the issues presented by the
State and the representatives of the victims and their families, and because I do not
disagree with the brief clarification made by the Court in paragraph 19 of the present
Judgment, in reference to the only point that truly refers to an interpretation of the
previous Judgment (that of 15/06/2005) in the cas d’espèce. Nevertheless, I think
that paragraphs 18 and 19 of the present Judgment “resolve” the issues presented
before the Court in a manifestly insufficient and unsatisfactory manner, and are
contradictory with the previous paragraphs 14 and 17 of the same Judgment.
2.
In this regard, it should not pass unnoticed that the representatives’ written
brief (of 11/9/2005) was prompted by the State’s request (of 10/4/2005), and
formulated as a response to it. In the present Separate Opinion I am only referring
to the question that should have, to my knowledge, been the cause of much
reflection for the Court, the question to which I attribute the most relevance: the
delimitation, demarcation, titling and the return of land to the victims and their
families, as a form of reparation. The Court could have, and should have, developed
paragraph 19 of the present Judgment in such manner that would truly have
“resolved” that which was submitted, but it limited and refrained itself amidst a
juridical formalism and a lack of humane sensitiveness that are unacceptable to me.
3.
For this reason I find myself in the duty to proceed to the development of a
reasoning of my own, in a manner that will supply what the Court preferred to
abstain from doing, leaving on record my personal reflections, as a basis for my
position, like I did in my Separate Opinion to the Court’s Judgment (of 6/15/2005)
regarding the present Case of the Moiwana Community. My reflections will focus
mainly on three basic points: a) the delimitation, demarcation, titling and return of
land as a form of reparation; b) the guarantee of the option of a voluntary and
sustainable return to the land; and c) the need to reconstruct and preserve cultural
identity. The field will then be open for the presentation of my conclusion regarding
the instant request for interpretation of the Judgment, and an epilogue as a brief
metajuridical reflection.
I.
Delimitation, Demarcation, Titling and
the Return of Land as a Form of Reparation.
4.
Firstly, I do not exempt myself from underlining the relevance that I attribute,
in circumstances like those of the present Case of the Moiwana Community versus
Suriname, with regard to the delimitation, demarcation and the return of land as a
form of non-pecuniary reparation, ordered by the Court in the exercise of its inherent
faculty, and in conformity with the terms of Article 63(1) of the American Convention
on Human Rights. By means of delimitation, demarcation, titling, in the
circumstances of the cas d’espèce, the effective protection (effet utile) of the rights
guaranteed in Articles 21 and 22 of the American Convention is ensured. This latter
is implicit under Article 33 (prohibition of refoulement) of the Convention on the
Status of Refugees of 1951.