by the latter,136 -without sufficiently and duly considering a
situation that suddenly causes irreparable damage to a human
being (v.g., deprivation of life due to the State's lack of diligence).'
In other words, the obligations involved are to achieve a given result and
not merely to act in a given manner, because, otherwise, they would not
refer to compulsory laws and, in addition, they could result in impunity."
(paras. 5-7 and 9-12).
More recently, I insisted on this same aspect in my extensive Dissenting Opinion (paras.
1-60) in the case of the Dismissed Congressional Employees versus Peru (Judgment of
Interpretation of 11.30.2007).
151. But it was in the case of Goiburú et al. versus Paraguay (Judgment of
09.22.2006), regarding the sinister “Condor Operation” of the so-called “intelligence
services” of the countries of the Southern Cone of South America (during the time of the
dictatorships of three decades ago), that the Court finally endorsed the thesis I had been
defending within ito for more than two years,137 by effectively expanding even more the
material content of the jus cogens, thus including the right to a fair trial at national and
international levels.138
152. In effect, in its mentioned Judgment of 09.22.2006 in the case of Goiburú et al.,
the Court, upon verifying violations to the jus cogens in the cas d'espèce, stated that
"(...) Access to justice is a peremptory norm of international law
and, as such, gives rise to obligations erga omnes for the States to adopt
.
Cf. A. Marchesi, Obblighi di Condotta e Obblighi di Risultato - Contributo allo
Studio degli Obblighi Internazionali, Milano, Giuffrè, 2003, pp. 50-55 and 128-135.
136
.
Cf. the text of my Concurring Opinion in this case, reproduced in: A.A. Cançado
Trindade, Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos - Esencia y Trascendencia
(Votos en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 1991-2006), México, Edit.
Porrúa/Universidad Iberoamericana, 2007, pp. 779-804.
137
.
In my Separate Opinions in the case of Goiburú et al. (paras. 62-68, text in ibid.,
pp. 801-804), as well as in the following cases of Almonacid Arellano versus Chile
(Judgment of 09.26.2006, paras. 58-60 of the Opinion), and of La Cantuta versus Peru
(Judgment of 11.29.2006, paras. 49-62 and 58-60 of the Opinion), I made emphasis on
the considerable importance of said expression of the material content of the jus cogens.
Cf. also in this regard, A.A. Cançado Trindade, "La Ampliación del Contenido Material del
Jus Cogens", in XXXIII Curso de Derecho Internacional Organizado por el Comité Jurídico
Interamericano - 2007, Washington D.C., General Secretariat of the OAS, 2008 (in
press). – In my Concurring Opinion in the case of Almonacid et al. versus Chile I sought
to prove the lack of juridical validity of the so-called self-amnesties, not compatible with
the ACHR, since they generate obstruction and denial of justice, and the resulting
impunity of those responsible for the atrocities. I insisted on the need to expand the
material content of the prohibitions of the jus cogens (in order to guarantee the right to a
fair trial at both national and international levels), and I placed, in the end, the definition
of the crimes against humanity in the crossing between International Human Rights Law
and International Criminal Law.
138
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