IV Inter-American System
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| Author | Claudia Martin |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410902700108 |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
78 Intersent ia
IV InTeR-ameRICan sysTem
C M*
During the period covered by this report, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights
(hereinaer ‘Court’) issued severa l decisions on merits, including: Apitz Barbera et al.
vs Venezuela, Castañeda Gutman vs Mex ico , Heliodoro Portugal vs Panamá, Bayarri vs
Argentina, Tiu Tojín vs Guatem ala, Ticona Estrada et al vs Bolivia, and Valle Jaramillo
et al vs Colombia. Also, the Court adopted several interpretation judgements clarifying
aspects of previous decisions on the merits, including: Miguel Castro-Ca stro Prison vs
Peru, Albán Co rnejo et al. vs Ecuador, Saramaka People vs Suriname, García Pr ieto et
al. vs El Salvador, and Chaparro Álvarez and Lapo Íñigue z vs Ecuador.
e present report wil l analyse the Court ’s interpretation decision in Saramaka
People vs Sur ina me, complementing the Court’s innovative approach in the judgement
on the merits, which was repor ted in the rst issue of 2008. Also, the report will
discuss the Court ’s judgements in Apitz Barbera et a l. vs Venezuela and Casta ñeda
Gutman vs United Mexican States, concerning the destit ution of judges in Venezuela
and the scope of the right to pol itical participation in Mexico, respec tively.
Finally, the report w ill briey desc ribe the Advisor y Opinion request recently
submitted by Argentina regarding the appointment of ad hoc judges i n proceedings
before the Court.
e full tex t of the decisions mentioned in this repor t can be found in English on
the website of the Court at: w ww.corteidh.or.cr.
* Co-Director of the Academy on Human Right s and Humanitarian Law and Professor ial Lecturer in
Residence, Americ an University, Washington Colle ge of Law (WCL), Washington, USA. She wou ld
like to t hank the edit ing support and c omments provided by Jea nne Cook and Lu iza Di Giovanni ,
legal researc hers at the Academy and WCL students .
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