Papers by Oswaldo Ruiz Chiriboga
The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 2016
Ecuador is a country with several normative systems coexisting within the same territory. Having ... more Ecuador is a country with several normative systems coexisting within the same territory. Having a multiplicity of systems facilitates the clashes of jurisdiction among them. This contribution studies the applicable rules Ecuador has to allocate jurisdiction among different legal systems, and how these rules advance or halt human rights. One particular way the country deals with conflicting jurisdictions is the request to relinquish jurisdiction that indigenous authorities may submit to ordinary courts if the former believe that the latter have no jurisdiction to hear a case. The decisions of ordinary courts on the request to relinquish jurisdiction will be analysed, as well as the impressions and opinions on the matter from academics, ordinary judges and prosecutors, indigenous authorities, activists and lawyers, all of them collected during three field research trips conducted in the country. The paper concludes by arguing that jurisdiction has a human rights impact. Every person has the right to be heard by a competent court, and barring that person from his/her natural judge is a fair trial violation.
REVISTA ARANZADI DE DERECHO Y PROCESO PENAL, 2020
El presente trabajo analiza las medidas cautelares que se ordenaron en contra del ex Presidente d... more El presente trabajo analiza las medidas cautelares que se ordenaron en contra del ex Presidente de la República del Ecuador, Rafael Correa Delgado, en el proceso penal seguido por el presunto delito de secuestro del señor Fernando Balda. Asimismo, se estudian algunas de las irregularidades en el trámite del mencionado proceso penal. El análisis se realiza a partir de los estándares fijados por el Sistema Interamericano de protección a los derechos humanos. El artículo concluye que el ex Presidente Correa ha visto mermados sus derechos a las garantías judiciales, a la libertad personal y a la libertad de circulación.
Critical Essays on Human Rights Criticism (A. Sajó & R. Uitz, eds.) , 2020
This chapter has two aims. First, to present and discuss the 2018 referendum called by the Ecuado... more This chapter has two aims. First, to present and discuss the 2018 referendum called by the Ecuadorian President, Lenín Moreno. Second, to analyse how (in)effective the Inter-American System (IAS) was in preventing the human rights violations and the institutional crisis that developed in the country as a consequence of the referendum. For these purposes, I describe the national proceedings that preceded the referendum, showing that President Moreno by-passed regular constitutional proceedings and Ecuadorians received no protection from the Constitutional Court. Then I discuss how the IAS responded to two individual applications that requested the System’s bodies to suspend the referendum or its implementation. I conclude that the IAS left Ecuadorians with no protection and allowed the institutional chaos and the rupture of democratic principles that followed the implementation of the referendum.
Mexican Law Review 12(2), 2020
This article is based on an extensive literature review and the findings obtained after three tri... more This article is based on an extensive literature review and the findings obtained after three trips to Ecuador, during which interviews and informal conversations were held with members of Indigenous communities, communal leaders, national judges, prosecutors, academics and practitioners. It uses the concepts of "forum shopping" and "shopping forums," showing how these phenomena are present in both types of legal systems in Ecuador: Indigenous legal systems and the ordinary legal system. The examples provided by respondents or studied within existing legal doctrine are shared first, followed by a discussion of the opportunities and challenges the choice of forums and disputants may experience in terms of access to justice. The article also examines the ne bis in idem principle, which has been implemented to control or reduce forum shopping and shopping forums. According to this principle an individual who has faced trial in one system should not be prosecuted again in the other system. If well controlled and carefully analysed on a case-by-case basis, forum shopping and shopping forum could be beneficial to individuals and communities, fostering access to justice and the protection of human rights, without disrespecting the autonomy of communities. Conversely, if poorly controlled or badly regulated, forum shopping and shopping forum could irreparably affect justice, harm individual rights or create impunity, leaving victims or the less powerful members of communities unprotected.
Abstract: The purpose of this contribution is to study the provisions on coerced statements of th... more Abstract: The purpose of this contribution is to study the provisions on coerced statements of the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, as well as the existing case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and then suggest an interpretation of the scope of each provision. The importance of defining the scope of the relevant provisions lies in the fact that their effet utile increases, that the parties before the Court will have better understanding of the applicable law, and that domestic judges will be able to follow the Court's rulings more easily. It will be argued that the different provisions interact in a consistent way, protecting victims from different types of coerced declarations. Such interaction depends on the answers to the following questions: (1) to which type of proceedings are these provisions applicable?; (2) who is the right-holder of each provision?; (3) which provisions are applicable only to torture cases and which ones also cover other " lesser " forms of ill-treatment?; (4) what do the expressions "coercion" and "not to be compelled" cover?; (5) what do the expressions "admissible as evidence" and "valid" mean?; and (6) what does the expression "verified" mean?
El presente capítulo tiene como último objetivo presentar al lector los estándares que la Corte I... more El presente capítulo tiene como último objetivo presentar al lector los estándares que la Corte Interamericana ha fijado respecto a los derechos de los pueblos indígenas y las reparaciones que deben otorgárseles en caso de que tales derechos sean vulnerados. En menor medida se utilizará la doctrina de la Comisión IDH. Dos secciones componen este capítulo. La primera de ellas muestra todos estos avances jurisprudenciales por tema o derecho, en una suerte de sistematización de los criterios más relevantes que el Tribunal ha adoptado a lo largo de su historia. La segunda sección está dedicada al estudio de las reparaciones que la Corte ha ordenado en casos de violaciones a los derechos de los pueblos indígenas y tribales.
Ecuador and other Latin American countries have recognised in their constitutions the right of in... more Ecuador and other Latin American countries have recognised in their constitutions the right of indigenous peoples to maintain, use, and apply their own legal orders to solve their internal conflicts. The focus of this article is whether the State could be held responsible at the international level for the actions and omissions of indigenous authorities that violate human rights. Could the acts of indigenous authorities be considered as acts of the State according to international law? Or are these customary/traditional/religious practices mere acts between private individuals? The question here, then, is not whether indigenous customary law violates human rights, but whether an individual case of human rights violation committed within indigenous customary law proceedings could be attributable to the State according to international law. If the answer to the above-mentioned question is affirmative (that is in fact the case), the next question that will be discussed is: what are the duties that indigenous authorities have in their official capacity? The article will suggest that four duties have to be complied with in this regard: to respect human rights, to ensure human rights, non-discrimination, and the obligation to adapt internal law to international obligations.
Indigenous customary law (ICL) has always coexisted with national law throughout the history of E... more Indigenous customary law (ICL) has always coexisted with national law throughout the history of Ecuador. At first it was tolerated, then it became illegal, and now it is fully recognized by the Constitution and by International Human Rights Law (IHRL). An integral part of ICL is the power to enact and apply punishments. Such punishments are in principle lawful, because of the broad wording of the constitutional recognition. A number of sanctions and the rituals that precede them have a physical component. As a result, indigenous peoples and Ecuadorian authorities are engaged in a debate over the compatibility of such punishments with human rights. Some maintain that corporal sanctions violate the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishments (CIDP). Indigenous peoples respond that their traditional practices must be respected. The aim of this research is to show that not all indigenous corporal punishments amount to forbidden acts. I will not try to undermine the prohibition of torture, instead, using the elements of the concept of ‘torture’ and ‘cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishments’ (CIDP) given by IHRL, I will show that certain indigenous corporal punishments do not fulfill all the requirements of torture or CIDP. I will also demonstrate that despite the views of several international bodies of the contrary, the culture of a society is always present in what it considers acceptable suffering for the assessment of the elements of torture and CIDP.
This article discusses the direct enforceability of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights i... more This article discusses the direct enforceability of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights in the Inter-American System, also called ‘the direct approach’. It starts by presenting two apparent conflicts between certain provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) and the Protocol of San Salvador (“the Protocol”) related to the ESC rights recognised in Article 26 of the Convention and the mechanisms of protection of such rights. The author concludes that ESC rights were never intended to be directly enforceable before the Inter-American System and therefore the direct approach is not feasible, except for the right to unionisation and the right to education, the only rights expressly conceived as directly enforceable by the Protocol. The recent decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Acevedo-Buendía et al. v. Peru is also studied. The Court declared that it has contentious jurisdiction over alleged violations of ESC rights, but it took no notice of the Protocol. This article stresses that every interpretation on ESC rights in the Inter-American System must not ignore the Protocol of San Salvador.
This article analyses the proposals made by Ecuador during the debates that were conducted in the... more This article analyses the proposals made by Ecuador during the debates that were conducted in the Organization of American States regarding the functioning of the Special Rapporteurship on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. The author concludes that, despite the political motivations Ecuador might have had, its proposals have some basis, since there is in fact an unexplained preferential treatment to the right to freedom of expression that might cause some unwanted consequences.
(Article in Spanish) The principle of equality and non-discrimination is firmly recognized in the... more (Article in Spanish) The principle of equality and non-discrimination is firmly recognized in the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAS) and has been invoked repeatedly by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. However, there is an application and interpretation somewhat confusing of the clauses enshrining this principle. The lack of clarity brings difficulties to assess the scope and meaning of each of the non-discrimination clauses, which in turn makes problematic the litigation of victims and States before the Court. This article aims to shed some light on this complex picture, suggesting a classification of non-discrimination clauses in three groups: autonomous, subordinate and incorporated. Additionally, this work indicates that while the categories of discrimination listed in the IAS instruments are not exhaustive, the inclusion of new categories does not rest solely on the discretion of the Court, but the regional consensus reached among States must have an important weight.
This article describes and analyzes several safeguards of the independence of the Inter-American ... more This article describes and analyzes several safeguards of the independence of the Inter-American judge. It concludes that the system enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights, the Statute of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Court’s practice are not enough to guarantee the appearance of independence of the Court’s judges. The major problem is the process of nomination and election of judges. At both national and international levels the process is not clear, transparent, or accountable. Women and ethnic and cultural groups are underrepresented. Judges’ terms of office and the re-election possibilities should be revised. Lastly, some guidelines should be adopted in order to regulate judges’ outside activities, incompatibilities, and disqualifications. All these issues should by addressed by the Organization of American States, States Parties to the Convention, and the Court itself, and this article gives some recommendations in this respect.
This piece concentrates on the duty of national judges to interpret and apply municipal law in ac... more This piece concentrates on the duty of national judges to interpret and apply municipal law in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights. It holds that national judges must carry on a ‘conventionality control', comparing national laws with the Convention and the interpretation of its provisions given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. It also expresses that there are two types of conventionality control: a narrow one and a broad one, depending on whether the Inter-American Court has already ruled on the matter to be address by the national judge. Finally it shows some examples on (un)successful experiences in Latin-America, where national judges whether compromised the international responsibility of their governments, or spared their government’s time, resources and shame of not being internationally sanction by the Inter-American Court.
A lo largo de este artículo intentamos deconstruir la problemática de la impunidad, las modalidad... more A lo largo de este artículo intentamos deconstruir la problemática de la impunidad, las modalidades en las que ésta se ha presentado en nuestra región, la afectación que produce, tanto individual como colectiva, y los alcances de la justicia internacional frente a la misma, concretamente de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.
Este artículo presenta un esquema del análisis de prueba que la Corte Interamericana de Derechos ... more Este artículo presenta un esquema del análisis de prueba que la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos realizó en un reciente caso relativo a la independencia judicial. Con ello se pretende que el lector observe cómo se construyeron los alegatos de las partes y cómo la Corte Interamericana resolvió la controversia en materia de hechos y evaluó la evidencia. El objetivo es mostrar, a través de un caso concreto, la forma en que el tribunal internacional analiza los medios de prueba y da por ciertas o por no demostradas las hipótesis que se le presentan.
La intención de este artículo es ofrecer una presentación básica de lo que la Corte Interamerican... more La intención de este artículo es ofrecer una presentación básica de lo que la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (en adelante “la Corte” o “el Tribunal”) ha establecido en su jurisprudencia sobre el alcance y las garantías de la propiedad comunal indígena o tribal frente a intereses de particulares o del propio Estado. Se partirá del análisis de dos casos concretos decididos por el Tribunal, en los que la diversidad cultural de los pueblos peticionarios cumplió un rol preponderante para la resolución de los problemas planteados. Los mencionados casos son: Comunidad Indígena Sawhoyamaxa vs. Paraguay y Pueblo Saramaka vs. Suriname. Se toman estos dos casos pues son los más recientes, advirtiendo al lector que un análisis completo de la temática indígena debería incluir toda la jurisprudencia interamericana relevante .
El presente trabajo pretende presentar una aproximación al concepto y naturaleza del derecho a la... more El presente trabajo pretende presentar una aproximación al concepto y naturaleza del derecho a la identidad cultural de los pueblos indígenas y las minorías nacionales, para luego buscar las formas en que la normativa internacional protege este derecho en sus distintas modalidades. Finalmente, se hará el intento de construir este derecho desde los tratados del Sistema Interamericano de promoción y protección de los Derechos Humanos, con el propósito de contribuir con la justiciabilidad de al menos una parte de este derecho.
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Papers by Oswaldo Ruiz Chiriboga