Gallardo case
The Gallardo case , the official case name in Spanish Asunto de Viviana Gallardo y otras or in English In the Matter of Viviana Gallardo et al. (German: In the case of Viviana Gallardo and others ) was a procedure applied for in 1981 by the government of Costa Rica before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights . The trial, which was the first in the history of the court founded in 1979, was given the unofficial nickname Costa Rica v. Costa Rica , because the Costa Rican government sought an investigation into a possible violation of human rights by the state organs of the country. Because of this extraordinary circumstance, the procedure is considered unique in the history of international case law .
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights declined to accept the application on the basis of the procedural provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights and referred it to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights . Two years later, the latter discontinued the proceedings as inadmissible because, in the opinion of the Commission, Costa Rica had subsequently complied with the obligations arising from the Convention within the framework of its national case law. The procedure was therefore particularly important for the delimitation of competences between the Commission and the Court of Justice in the framework of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights.
background
The background to the proceedings was the shooting of the 18-year-old student Viviana Gallardo, a citizen of Costa Rica, by a police officer who was not on duty during the act. Viviana Gallardo, suspected of being a member of a terrorist group , was in custody in a police station in San José at the time of her killing . She and others had previously been involved in a shooting in which a police officer was killed. Two other women arrested together with Viviana Gallardo were injured by the police officer's act.
These events caused great public concern in Costa Rica as the country attaches great importance to its international reputation in the areas of democracy , the rule of law and human rights . The government of Costa Rica, represented by then Justice Minister Elizabeth Odio Benito , then applied to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on July 15, 1981 for a decision on the question of whether in this case a violation of human rights in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights was committed by the state organs of the country has been.
decision
In its unanimous decision of November 13, 1981, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights did not accept the case, but instead referred it to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in accordance with the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights , as requested by the Costa Rican government in the event of rejection had been. The central aspect of the proceedings, which formed the basis for the court's decision, was the fact that Costa Rica's application was both for exhaustion of the legal process in its national legal system in accordance with Article 46 of the American Convention on Human Rights and for the recourse to proceedings the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights under Article 61 of the Convention.
In this regard, the court emphasized that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was the only body to which individual persons could turn within the system for the protection of human rights established by the American Convention on Human Rights . A unilateral waiver of proceedings before the Commission, as provided for in Articles 48 to 50 of the Convention, by a state as a party to the proceedings would therefore be an inadmissible restriction of the right of data subjects, in particular victims of human rights violations, to free themselves to attempt an amicable and out-of-court settlement through a procedure before the commission. In the opinion of the court, it was therefore only possible to waive such a procedure in exceptional cases if it could be clearly seen that this waiver would not lead to a restriction of the functions which the Convention provides for the Commission. However, this is not the case with regard to the application by Costa Rica, so that the inadmissibility of Costa Rica's waiver of proceedings before the Commission would in itself constitute sufficient grounds for non-acceptance by the Court of Justice.
With regard to Costa Rica's waiver of the prescribed exhaustion of the legal process in its national legal system, the court decided that the corresponding provisions of the Convention, based on established international law principles, should primarily protect states from lawsuits before international courts , which are also within the framework of the national legal process can be settled. Referring to a 1971 decision by the European Court of Human Rights , the Court stressed that such a waiver was irrevocable. In addition, the admissibility of such a waiver depends on the circumstances of the individual case. However, since there would already be grounds for not accepting the proceedings, the Court of Justice decided not to assess the relevant circumstances in the present case.
literature
- Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Decision on the Application of the Government of Costa Rica with Regard to Viviana Gallardo et al. (Jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Referral to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights). In: International Legal Materials. 20 (6) / 1981. American Society of International Law, pp. 1424-1435, ISSN 0020-7829 (text of the decision)