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PERMANENT COUNCIL OEA/Ser.G CP/doc.4469/10 24 February 2010 Original: Spanish ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY This document is being distributed to the permanent missions and will be presented to the Permanent Council of the Organization. COMISSÃO JURÍDICA INTERAMERICANA COMITÉ JURÍDICO INTERAMERICANO INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE COMITÉ JURIDIQUE INTERAMÉRICAIN _________________________________________________________________________ ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES Av. Marechal Floriano, 196 - 3o andar – Palácio Itamaraty - Centro - 20080-002 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ Tel: (55-21) 2206-9903; Fax: (55-21) 2203-2090 e-mail: [email protected] Rio de Janeiro, January 13, 2010 CJI/O/01/2010 Excellency: I have the honor to address Your Excellency to request that you kindly forward to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States the attached Annual Report of the Inter- American Juridical Committee to the General Assembly (OEA/Ser.Q/IX.40 CJI/doc. 338/09), regarding the activities of the Committee in 2009. Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. His Excellency José Miguel Insulza Secretary General Organization of American States Washington, D.C. U.S.A. ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE 75th REGULAR SESSION OEA/Ser.Q/XIX.40 August 3 to 14, 2009 CJI/doc.338/09 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 14 August 2009 Original: Spanish ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2009 General Secretariat Organization of the American States www.oas.org/cji [email protected] EXPLANATORY NOTE Until 1990, the OAS General Secretariat published the “Final Acts” and “Annual Reports of the Inter-American Juridical Committee” under the series classified as “Reports and Recommendations”. In 1997, the Department of International Law of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs began to publish those documents under the title “Annual Report of the Inter-American Juridical Committee to the General Assembly”. According to the “Classification Manual for the OAS official records series”, the Inter-American Juridical Committee is assigned the classification code OEA/Ser.Q, followed by CJI, to signify documents issued by this body (see attached lists of resolutions and documents). i TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE EXPLANATORY NOTE I RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE II DOCUMENTS INCLUDED IN THIS ANNUAL REPORT IV INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I 5 1. THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE: ITS ORIGIN, LEGAL BASES, STRUCTURE AND PURPOSES 7 2. PERIOD COVERED BY THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE 9 A. SEVENTY-FOURTH REGULAR SESSION 9 B. SEVENTY-FIFTH REGULAR SESSION 12 CHAPTER II 17 TOPICS DISCUSSED BY THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE AT THE REGULAR SESSIONS HELD IN 2009 19 1. International Criminal Court 21 2. Promotion and strengthening of democracy 39 3. The struggle against discrimination and intolerance in theAmericas 85 4. Seventh Inter-American Specialized Conference on Private International Law (CIDIP-VII) 101 5. Implementation of international humanitarian law in the OASs Member States 107 6. Migratory topics: follow-up of the opinions of the Inter-American Juridical Committee 129 7. Innovative forms of access to justice in the Americas 137 8. Considerations on an inter-american jurisdiction of justice 141 9. Cultural diversity in the development of international law 143 10. Strengthening the consultative competence of the Inter-American Juridical Committee 155 11. Asylum 157 12. Freedom of thought and expression 157 13. Access to public information 159 14. Institutional and legal cooperation with the Republic of Haiti 159 CHAPTER III 161 A. Presentation of the annual report of the Inter-American Juridical Committee 163 B. Course on International Law 163 C. Relations and cooperation with other Inter-American bodies and with similar regional and global organizations 166 INDEXES 169 Onomastic index 171 Subject index 173 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE INTER-AMERICAN JURIDICAL COMMITTEE Page CJI/RES. 152 (LXXIII-O/08) Agenda for the Seventy-Fourth Regular Session of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (Rio de Janeiro, as of March 9, 2009) 11 CJI/RES. 153 (LXXIV-O/09 Tribute to Dr. Ricardo Antônio Silva Seitenfus 10 CJI/RES. 154 (LXXIV-O/09) Date and Venue of the Seventy-Fifth Regular Session of the Inter- American Juridical Committee 10 CJI/RES. 155 (LXXIV-O/09) Agenda for the Seventy-Fifth Regular Session of the Inter- American Juridical Committee (Rio de Janeiro, as of August 3, 2009) 13 CJI/RES. 156 (LXXIV-O/09) Expression of Appreciation to the Government and the People of the Republic of Colombia 11 CJI/RES. 157 (LXXIV-O/09) International Criminal Court 26 CJI/RES. 158 (LXXV-O/09) Homage to the Memory of Dr. Roberto R. Alemán Zubieta 15 CJI/RES. 159 (LXXV-O/09) The essential and fundamental elements of representative democracy and their relation to collective action within the framework of the Inter- American Democratic Charter 44 CJI/RES. 160 (LXXV-O/09) Follow-up on the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter 46 CJI/RES. 161 (LXXV-O/09) Agenda for the Seventy-Sixth Regular Session of the Inter- American Juridical Committee (Lima, Peru, March 15 to 24, 2010) 14 CJI/RES. 162 (LXXV-O/09) Date and venue of the Seventy-Sixth Regular Session of the Inter- American Juridical Committee 14 DOCUMENTS INCLUDED IN THIS ANNUAL REPORT Page CJI/doc.337/09 Report on preparations and advances in efforts toward adopting national legislation based on guidelines of principles of the Inter-American Juridical Committee and training employees for the cooperation of the Member States of the OAS with the International Criminal Court (presented by Dr. Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa) 28 CJI/doc.317/09 corr. 1 Follow-up on the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (presented by Dr. Jean-Paul Hubert) 47 CJI/doc.324/09 The struggle against discrimination and intolerance in the Americas: significant achievements (presented by Dr. Hyacinth Evadne Lindsay) 92 CJI/doc.330/09 The struggle against discrimination and intolerance in the Americas: corrective measures (presented by Dr. Hyacinth Evadne Lindsay) 96 CJI/doc.322/09 Implementation of international humanitarian Law in the OAS Member States (presented by Dr. Jorge Palacios Treviño) 114 CJI/doc.328/09 War crimes in international humanitarian law (presented by Dr. Jorge Palacios Treviño) 121 CJI/doc.329/09 Migration topics: follow-up on the opinions of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (presented by Dr. Ana Elizabeth Villalta Vizcarra) 131 CJI/doc.333/09 Reflections of the topic on the cultural diversity and the development of international law (presented by Dr. Freddy Castillo Castellanos) 145 INTRODUCTION 2 3 The Inter-American Juridical Committee is honored to present its “Annual Report to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States”. This report concerns the Committee’s activities in 2008, and is presented pursuant to the provisions of Article 91.f of the Charter of the Organization of American States, Article 13 of the Committee’s Statutes, and the instructions contained in General Assembly resolutions AG/RES. 1452 (XXVII-O/97), AG/RES. 1669 (XXIX-O/99), AG/RES. 1735 (XXX-O/00), AG/RES. 1787 (XXXI-O/01), AG/RES. 1883 (XXXII-O/02), AG/RES. 1952 (XXXIII- O/03), AG/RES. 2042 (XXXIV-O/04), AG/RES. 2136 (XXXV-O/05), and AG/RES. 2197 (XXXVI- O/06), all of which concern the preparation of the annual reports submitted to the General Assembly by the Organization’s organs, agencies and entities. During the period covered in this Annual Report, the Inter-American Juridical Committee’s agenda included topics such as: the International Criminal Court; follow-up on the application of the Inter- American Democratic Charter; the fight against discrimination and intolerance in the Americas; the Seventh Inter-American Specialized Conference on Private International Law (CIDIP-VII); implementation of international humanitarian law in OAS member states; migratory topics; follow-up of the Opinions of the Inter-American Juridical Committee (evaluation and follow-up on the Opinion of the Inter-American Juridical Committee on the Directive on Return approved by the Parliament of the European Union); innovating forms of access to justice in the Americas; considerations on an inter- American jurisdiction of justice; cultural diversity in the development of international law; strengthening the consultative competence of the Inter-American Juridical Committee; asylum; freedom of thought and expression; access to public information and legal and institutional cooperation with the Republic of Haiti. This Annual Report contains mostly the work done on the studies associated with the aforementioned topics and is divided into three chapters. The first discusses the origin, legal bases, and structure of the Inter-American Juridical Committee and the period covered in this Annual Report. The second chapter considers the issues that the Inter-American Juridical Committee discussed at the regular sessions in 2009 and contains the texts of the resolutions adopted at both regular sessions and related documents. Lastly, the third chapter concerns the Juridical Committee’s other activities and resolutions adopted by it. Budgetary matters are also discussed. Annexed to the Annual Report are lists of the resolutions and documents adopted, as well as thematic and keyword indexes to help the reader locate documents in this Report. Dr. Guillermo Fernández de Soto, Chair of the Inter-American Juridical Committee, approved the language of this Annual Report. 4 5 CHAPTER I 6 - 7 - 1. The Inter-American Juridical Committee: its origin, legal bases, structure and purposes The forerunner of the Inter-American Juridical Committee was the International Board of Jurists in Rio de Janeiro, created by the Third International Conference of American States in 1906. Its first meeting was in 1912, although the most important was in 1927. There, it approved twelve draft conventions on public international law and the Bustamante Code in the field of private international law.