Separate Opinion of Judge A.A. Cançado Trindade in the Case of the Massacre of Plan de Sánchez versus Guatemala (Merits, Judgment of 29.04.2004)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the adoption of the present Judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of the Massacre of Plan de Sanchez, concerning the State of Guatemala. In effect, this is the first time in the whole history of the Inter-American Court that a massacre of the present dimension is submitted to its consideration. In this Separate Opinion, after distinguishing, from the start, the jurisdictional from the substantive issue of responsibility, the chapter then focuses on the content and scope of the principle of humanity, and then examines, in sequence, the aggravated international responsibility, the jus cogens in its wide dimension, the existence of the crime of State, and the co-existence of the international responsibility of the State and of the individual. It then presents, at last, Judge A.A. Cancado Trindade's final observations.Keywords: Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Judge A.A. Cancado Trindade; jus cogens; Massacre of Plan de Sanchez; principle of humanity; Separate Opinion; State of Guatemala