3 9. The statements and the information submitted by the parties in the private hearing held on July 8, 2009 during the Court’s 83rd Regular Session to monitor compliance with the judgment.1 CONSIDERING: 1. That it is an inherent power of the Court to monitor compliance with its decisions. 2. That Costa Rica has been a State Party to the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter, the “American Convention” or “the Convention”) since November 22, 1969 and acknowledged the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court on July 2, 1980. 3. That under Article 68(1) of the American Convention, ”[t]he States Parties to the Convention undertake to comply with the judgment of the Court in any case to which they are parties”. For such purpose, the States must ensure that the Court’s rulings are complied with at the domestic level.2 4. That because the Court's judgments are final and not subject to appeal pursuant to Article 67 of the American Convention, they must be promptly and fully complied with by the States. 5. That the duty to comply with the judgments of the Court is rooted in the basic principle of law on the international responsibility of States, which has been upheld by international case law, under which the States must perform their obligations under international treaties in good faith (pacta sunt servanda) and, as pointed out by this Court and set forth in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, they may not rely on their domestic interests to avoid their international responsibility.3 The 1 In accordance with Article 63(3) of the Rules, the Court held the hearing with a committee of Judges composed by: Judge Diego García-Sayán; Judge Sergio García-Ramírez and Judge Rhadys Abreu-Blondet. Such hearing was attended by: (a) For the Inter-American Commission: Juan Pablo Alban, Advisor; (b) for the State: Luis Paulino Mora Mora, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica; José Manual Arroyo Gutiérrez, President of the Third Division of the Supreme Court of Justice; Edgar Ugalde Álvarez, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cult; Vanessa Videche, Legal Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cult; José Carlos Jiménez Alpízar, Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; José Enrique Castro-Marín, Costa Rica's Attorney General; Vivian ÁvilaJones, Public Law Attorney of the Attorney General’s Office; and Edwin Jiménez-González, Judge of the Third Division of the Costa Rican Supreme Court of Justice; and (c) for the victim: Representatives Pedro Nikken, Fernando Guier, Armando González and Carlos Tiffer. 2 Cf. Case of Baena-Ricardo et al. v. Panama. Competence. Judgment of November 28, 2003. Series C No. 104, para. 131; Case of Cantoral-Huamaní and García-Santa Cruz v. Peru. Monitoring Compliance with Judgment. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of April 28, 2009, Considering clause No. 3; and Case of Chaparro Álvarez and Lapo-Íñiguez v. Ecuador. Monitoring Compliance with Judgment. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of April 29, 2009, considering clause No. 3. 3 Cf. International Responsibility for the Promulgation and Enforcement of Laws in Violation of the Convention (Arts. 1 and 2 of the American Convention on Human Rights). Advisory Opinion OC-14/94 of December 9, 1994, para. 35; Case of Cantoral-Huamaní and García-Santa Cruz v. Peru, supra note 2, Considering clause No. 5, and Case of Chaparro Álvarez and Lapo-Íñiguez v. Ecuador, supra nota 2, Considering clause No. 5.