26
73.
I will just refer to some of my writings on the subject100, pointing out an
important aspect springing from the instant case: even though the State fails to
recognize the personality before the law of the human being as a legal subject, able
to exercise his rights within the framework of the domestic legal system, not even so
is the human being deprived of personality before the law, for the right to such
personality is a right inherent to the human being. The impact of International
Human Rights Law on the national or domestic legal systems is hereby evidenced
once more. Face with the shortcomings of the latter, International Human Rights Law
comes to the rescue of the individuals, to secure for them the full force and effect of
the basic right to personality before the law, of which no one can be deprived.
Individuals, — as I have been contending over the past four decades, —- are
subjects of both domestic and international law, vested in both legal systems with
personality before the law, and with the appurtenant legal and procedural ability to
lay claim to the rights inherent to them.
74.
Hence, once more, my sorrow at the fact of the Court omitting, already in the
sister case of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa, to take this positive step
regarding Article 3 of the Inter-American Convention it took in the instant Judgment
in the case of the Sawhoyamaxa Community (paras. 186-194). Here, once more, the
different criteria applied by the majority of the Court in the two sister cases have
increased the flagrant imbalance in the legal treatment of the protection given the
victimized from the two dos indigenous Communities in point, who are in the same
situation, enduring the same state of want and the same sufferings. This
unjustifiable imbalance is likely to happen when, in judicial deliberations, the badly
needed patience and reflexion lose ground to haste and precipitation, against which I
have been taking up a position during the past months, with a vox clamantis in
deserto, within the Court.
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade
Judge
Pablo Saavedra-Alessandri
Secretary
100
.
A.A. Cançado Trindade, "A Personalidade e Capacidade Jurídicas do Indivíduo como Sujeito do
Direito Internacional", in Jornadas de Direito Internacional (Cidade do México, dez. de 2001), Washington
D.C., Subsecretaría de Asuntos Jurídicos de la OAS, 2002, pages 311-347; A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Vers
la consolidation de la capacité juridique internationale des pétitionnaires dans le système interaméricain
des droits de la personne", 14 Revue québécoise de droit international (2001) No. 2, pages 207-239; A.A.
Cançado Trindade, "A Consolidação da Personalidade e da Capacidade Jurídicas do Indivíduo como Sujeito
do Direito Internacional", 16 Anuario del Instituto Hispano-Luso-Americano de Derecho Internacional Madrid (2003) pages 237-288; A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Hacia la Consolidación de la Capacidad Jurídica
Internacional de los Peticionarios in el Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos",
37 Revista del Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (2003) pages 13-52; A.A. Cançado
Trindade, "El Derecho de Acceso a la Justicia Internacional and las Condiciones para Su Realización in el
Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos", 37 Revista del Instituto Interamericano
de Derechos Humanos (2003) pages 53-83; A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Le nouveau Règlement de la Cour
Interaméricaine des Droits de l'Homme: quelques réflexions sur la condition de l'individu comme sujet du
Droit international, in Libertés, justice, tolérance - Mélanges in hommage au Doyen G. Cohen-Jonathan,
vol. I, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2004, pages 351-365; A.A. Cançado Trindade, "The Procedural Capacity of the
Individual as Subject of International Human Rights Law: Recent Developments", in Les droits de l'homme
à l'aube du XXIe siècle - K. Vasak Amicorum Liber, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 1999, pages 521-544; A.A.
Cançado Trindade, "A Emancipação do Ser Humano como Sujeito do Direito Internacional e os Limites da
Razão de Estado", 6/7 Revista da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
(1998-1999) pages 425-434.