American states are authorized under international
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 5:18 am
The Court paid special attention to the “opportunities” and understood that it points to a state obligation to bring about conditions for the real opportunity of effectively exercising those rights without discrimination (para. 111). According to the Court, in the Inter-American system political rights are embedded in a context of “relationship between human rights, representative democracy and political rights”, as see in the Inter-American Democratic Charter (para. 114). In that regard, it is interesting to note how the Court mentioned that the “effective exercise of democracy in the American states is […] an international legal obligation and they have sovereignly consented to such an exercise no longer being regarded as being exclusively an issue under their domestic, internal or exclusive jurisdiction” (emphasis added, para. 114). These considerations are crucial, and rebut the falsa allegations of the “Chavista” regime that criticisms against their abuses against the opposition and the lack of an actual separation of powers in practice are contrary to the principle of non-intervention. Such principle, actually, protects the sphere of lawful decision-makingof states, and human rights violations can never be regarded as lawful. After all, as the International Court of Justice recently saidin the case of Equatorial Guinea v. France on Immunities and Criminal Proceedings, there are rules and principles that, while being distinct, are related to and derive from sovereignty, such as, in my opinion, non-intervention. However, as Georg Noltehas argued, sovereignty is about “the liberty of a state within the limits of international law”, and there is no freedom to contravene its human rights obligations and those under the OAS, including those on separation and independence of powers and democracy. Furthermore, as the articles on state responsibility(articles 40, 41 and 48) indicate, if peremptory law is seriously breached, third states are under an obligation to seek the peaceful cessation of the situation and to not recognize it; and if the abuse does not endanger peremptory law third states are still entitled to invoke the responsibility of those that breach erga omnesviolations, as human rights ones, insofar as states other band database than injured subjects are “entitled to invoke the responsibility of another State” in such events. In this regard, it is necessary to consider that the same Inter-American Court has declared the principle of equality and non-discrimination to be peremptory (see advisory opinions OC-18/03, paras. 100-101, and OC-24/17, para. 61).
It is my contention that, first, law to demand the cessation of Venezuelan wrongful acts against those under its jurisdiction and to repair them (art. 40 of the aforementioned articles on state responsibility). But what is more, given the systematic –and, one could say, gross— violations against political opponents and others in Venezuela, aware that this is controversial, I would also argue that they are under an obligation to do this and seek the peaceful end of such abuses and to not recognize as lawful the situation created by breaches of the sort being examined (art. 41 of the articles on state responsibility). Even if this is not accepted, at the very least there would be a moral, if not legal –which I still defend— obligation in this sense, considering the humanitarian tragedy befalling Venezuelans, as revealed by their mass exodus. In fact, to my mind, a recent Resolution adopted by the OAS on the Situation in Venezuela on 5 June 2018expressly refers to a human rights crisis and resolves, among others, to declare the recent electoral process in Venezuela as lacking “legitimacy, for not complying with international standards” –a form or manifestation of the duty of not recognizing a gross or systematic abuse, in my opinion—, apart from declaring an alteration of the constitutional order and urging accepting humanitarian aid and asking Venezuela to “take steps to guarantee the separation and independence of” powers. Being international actions of this sort peaceful, and having domestic action and guarantees failed, I find initiatives as this resolution and judgment legitimate expressions and institutional venues when states fail to carry out their responsibility to protect.
It is my contention that, first, law to demand the cessation of Venezuelan wrongful acts against those under its jurisdiction and to repair them (art. 40 of the aforementioned articles on state responsibility). But what is more, given the systematic –and, one could say, gross— violations against political opponents and others in Venezuela, aware that this is controversial, I would also argue that they are under an obligation to do this and seek the peaceful end of such abuses and to not recognize as lawful the situation created by breaches of the sort being examined (art. 41 of the articles on state responsibility). Even if this is not accepted, at the very least there would be a moral, if not legal –which I still defend— obligation in this sense, considering the humanitarian tragedy befalling Venezuelans, as revealed by their mass exodus. In fact, to my mind, a recent Resolution adopted by the OAS on the Situation in Venezuela on 5 June 2018expressly refers to a human rights crisis and resolves, among others, to declare the recent electoral process in Venezuela as lacking “legitimacy, for not complying with international standards” –a form or manifestation of the duty of not recognizing a gross or systematic abuse, in my opinion—, apart from declaring an alteration of the constitutional order and urging accepting humanitarian aid and asking Venezuela to “take steps to guarantee the separation and independence of” powers. Being international actions of this sort peaceful, and having domestic action and guarantees failed, I find initiatives as this resolution and judgment legitimate expressions and institutional venues when states fail to carry out their responsibility to protect.