Abstract
Although the discussion in this paper derives from an address originally presented to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2014 on the occasion of the opening of its judicial year, it is hoped that its publication in the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law might assist in sharing more broadly experiences gained at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), in the hope that those experiences might assist sister human rights courts in Africa and elsewhere in tackling possibly common problems.
Judge at the International Court of Justice The Hague, The Netherlands; former President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Emeritus Professor of International Law of the University of Brasilia, Brazil; Former President of the Latin American Society of International Law. This paper is based on an address delivered by the Author in the Seminar of the opening of the Judicial Year of 2014 of the European Court of Human Rights, held at the Palais des Droits de l’Homme, in Strasbourg, on 31 January 2014; originally published on the website—Implementation of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights: A Shared Judicial Responsibility? Dialogue between Judges 2014/La mise en oeuvre des arrêts de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme: Une responsabilité judiciaire partagée?—Dialogue entre juges 2014, Strasbourg, European Court of Human Rights/Cour europénne des droits de l’homme, 2014, pp 10–17, http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Dialogue_2014_ENG.pdf, accessed on 20 May 2016.
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Notes
- 1.
Report of 5 April 2001 presented to the Commission on Legal and Political Affairs of the Permanent Council of the OAS, reproduced in: A.A. Cançado Trindade, Informe: Bases para un Proyecto de Protocolo a la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos, para Fortalecer Su Mecanismo de Protección (IACtHR, vol II, 2nd edn, San José of Costa Rica 2003) 125.
- 2.
As documented in the OAS General Assembly’s Annual Reports of 2000 and 2003.
- 3.
Trindade (n 1) 47-49, 111, 125, 234-235, 664, 793-795 918-921, esp. 793-794.
- 4.
See Article 68(1) of the ACHR.
- 5.
See Article 68(2) of the ACHR.
- 6.
They are, respectively, Peru, which attributes to the highest judicial organ in domestic law (the Supreme Court of Justice) the faculty to determine the execution of, and compliance with, the decisions of organs of international protection to the jurisdiction of which Peru has engaged itself (judicial model); and Colombia, which has opted for the attribution to a Committee of Ministers of the same function (executive model).
- 7.
Namely, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, Venezuela and Honduras. Moreover, the duty of compliance with the judgments and decisions of the IACtHR has been expressly acknowledged by the Supreme Courts of a couple of States Parties: it was done so, e.g., in 2007, by the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina, as well as the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru, among others. Despite these advances, there subsists to date the problem of undue delays in the full compliance by respondent States with the IACtHR’s judgments and decisions.
- 8.
A A Cançado Trindade, Tratado de Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos, (vol II, Porto Alegre/Brazil, S.A. Fabris Ed., 1999) 184.
- 9.
Trindade (n 1) 369. For a recent reassessment of that and other proposals, See A A CançadoTrindade, Le Droit international pour la personne humaine (Paris, Pédone, 2012) 169-214.
- 10.
ibid 378.
- 11.
ibid 794-795.
- 12.
ibid 919-920.
- 13.
ibid.
- 14.
- 15.
ibid 919-921.
- 16.
Baena Ricardo and Others (270 Workers) v Panama, Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series C No 104 (28 November 2003), para 72 (footnote omitted).
- 17.
ibid para 74.
- 18.
ibid para 82.
- 19.
ibid para 83.
- 20.
For the complete text of my aforementioned Opinion, see A. A. Cançado. Trindade, Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos - Esencia y Trascendencia (Votos en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, 1991-2006) (Mexico, Edit. Porrúa/Univ. Iberoamericana, 2007) 52-87.
- 21.
See on this issue: A.A. Cançado Trindade, ‘International Law for Humankind: Towards a New Jus Gentium—General Course on Public International Law, Part I’ (2005), Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law, Brill 316, 177-202; A.A. Cançado Trindade, A Humanização do Direito Internacional, (Belo Horizonte/Brazil, Edit. Del Rey, 2006) 3-106 and 394-409.
- 22.
See Juridical Condition and Rights of Undocumented Migrants, Advisory Opinion, Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series A No. 18 (17 September 2003), Concurring Opinion of Judge A.A. Cançado Trindade, para 81.
- 23.
The IACtHR added that its function of supervision has been accepted by the States and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, as well as by the victims or the legal representatives; the IACtHR has thus been able to exercise regularly and consistently its function of supervision of compliance with its own judgments (para 103).
- 24.
Baena (n 16) paras 90, 113 and 115.
- 25.
ibid paras 103-104 and 107.
- 26.
ibid para 121.
- 27.
ibid para 127.
- 28.
ibid paras 128-137.
- 29.
ibid para 138-139.
- 30.
For an account, see A. A. Cançado Trindade, El Ejercicio de la Función Judicial Internacional - Memorias de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, (3rd edn, Belo Horizonte/Brazil, Edit. Del Rey, 2013) 29-45.
- 31.
Olmedo Bustos and Others v Chile Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series C No 73 (5 February 2001).
- 32.
Namely, Article 19(12) of the Chilean Constitution of 1980.
- 33.
See Constitutional Tribunal v Peru, Inter-American Court of Human Rights Series C No 71 (31 January 2001), para 75.
- 34.
Text of the letter reproduced in: OAS, Informe Anual de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos - 2003, IACtHR, San José of Costa Rica, 2004, Annex LVII, 1459-1460, and 1457-1458.
- 35.
See A. A. Cançado Trindade, Reflexiones sobre la Interacción entre el Derecho Internacional y el Derecho Interno en la Protección de los Derechos Humanos, (Ed. del Procurador de los Derechos Humanos de Guatemala, 1995) 3-41; Trindade (n14) ch. V, 76-112 (on the interaction between international law and domestic law in human rights protection).
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Cançado Trindade, A.A. (2018). Compliance with Judgments and Decisions: The Experience of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: A Reassessment. In: Eboe-Osuji, C., Emeseh, E. (eds) Nigerian Yearbook of International Law 2017. Nigerian Yearbook of International Law , vol 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71476-9_1
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