IV INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Author | Cecilia Medina |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/092405190001800108 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
NQHR
1/2000
IV INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM
Cecilia Medina
Inter-American
Court
of Human Rights
Baena,
Ricardo et al. v, Panama. The Court has rejected the preliminary objections raised
by the Government in this case, which deals with the alleged arbitrary dismissal of 270
civil servants following a public demonstration to support their claims concerning labour
conditions (see NQHR, Vol. 17,
No.2,
1999, p. 209). The first preliminary objection
referred to alleged non-compliance by the Commission with formal requirements to submit
a case as it had used electronic means to send the case to the Court; the Court found that
this was a valid means to use. The second one dealt with the issue
of
litis pendencia, as
some cases had been presented to the Committee on Trade Union Freedom of the
International Labour Organization; the Court found that there was no identity between the
two procedures. The third preliminary objection argued that the Commission had breached
confidentiality in transmitting to the victims report No. 37/97; the Court stated that this
was not true, since what the Commission had transmitted to the victims was a copy of its
application to the Court. The case goes now to the examination
of
the merits.
Villagran Morales et al. v. Guatemala (the Street Children Case). This case examined the
kidnapping, torture and murder of Henry Giovanni Contreras, Federico Clemente Figueroa
Tiinchez, Julio Roberto Caal Sandioval and the murder of Anstraum Aman Villagra
Morales. Three of the four victims were minors. The Court found that Guatemala had
violated Article 4 of the American Convention as it had been proven that the
assassinations were carried out by members of the national police. It also found that
Article 5 had been violated with respect to the victims, since there was evidence that they
had been seriously mistreated and had undergone physical and psychological torture, and
also with respect to the relatives of the victims, because the State had not carried out
efforts to locate the families
of
the victims, notify them
of
their deaths, gave them back
the bodies and investigate the facts in order to prosecute and punish those responsible. It
should be noted that the bodies of the victims were left abandoned, exposed to the weather
and the action
of
animals, having been discovered just by chance. An important finding
was the linking
of
these cases with a systematic practice
of
violence against street children
in Guatemala at the time
of
the events in the case. The Court finds that Article 19 has
been violated not only because
of
the mistreatment and murder
of
the victims but also due
to the fact that the situation
of
destitution in which they found themselves had deprived
them of any possibility to develop properly. Articles 1(1) and 25 were also violated since
there had been no possibility
of
a proper judicial investigation
of
the facts. A novelty is
the finding by the Court that also Articles 1, 6 and 8
of
the Inter-American Convention
to Prevent and Punish Torture had been violated.
Aguilera La Rosa et al. v. Venezuela (Caracazo). The Commission presented its
application in this case in June 1999. It argued that, between February and March 1989,
35 people had allegedly been summarily executed by Venezuelan State agents, three had
been injured and two had disappeared. The Commission requested the Court to find a
violation
of
Articles 1(1), 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 25 and 27 of the American Convention. At the
hearing on 10 November 1999 Venezuela admitted its responsibility in the facts of the
case. Consequently, the Court found that Articles 4(1), 5, 7, 8(1), 25(1), 25(2)(a) and
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