My Morning at the Court

This morning I walked to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, with my Human Rights professor and a few of my classmates. It was so interesting. I've never seen a legal system in action before, and to be able to see first hand how it functions, was fascinating--maybe I'm a nerd for government related things.

The Organization of American States (OAS), is an organization consisting of member states from  North and South America.  According to Article 1 in the charter it was established to achieve, “an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.”  35 American states are members of the OAS.

A function of the OAS is to promote human rights and find the injustices happening in the Americas.  Within the OAS, there is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (it's seated in San José, Costa Rica), which solely hears cases on human rights violations from OAS member states.  It's composed of judges from member countries of the OAS.  Though every state belonging to the OAS is allowed to bring forth cases to the court, not all have ratified the American Convention, which gives the court jurisdiction in their country. The United States has yet to ratify the Convention. This leaves me questioning the motives behind that decision. 

It looks like the White House.

The case being presented today was between an Ecuadorian military colonel and the State of Ecuador. Here's a quick run down of the case. The military colonel, wasn't allowed to be promoted to the general position, even though he was well deserving of it, and the military officials wouldn't tell him why.  He began to start questioning why he wasn't able to be promoted, and then Ecuador started to threaten him and his family. The military colonel started to have mental illness because of all the negative effects it had on him.  He is accusing Ecuador of a violation to proper legal representation along with other things. 

The hearing was all in Spanish, it was very challenging to understand everything that was going on.  Throughout the whole thing I was concentrating so hard to tune out everything else and just listen to the Spanish, and at the same time wishing I would've arrived early enough to get a headset for the English translation.  I picked up bits and pieces, but it helped significantly that my professor; who is fluent in Spanish, was there taking us aside and explaining the happenings.

Inside the court room.

Seating area.

Besides everything being in Spanish, it was still cool to see the procedure of the court room and the formality of it all.  Instead of the case being presented by the victim's lawyers it was presented by the victim himself.  It's a pretty unique thing for the victim to present his own case, but I felt that made the argument more profound.  He was well versed in the legal terminology, and able to sound educated-- making a good argument.

Days like today where I'm able to do something I enjoy and do something completely new, makes me appreciate being in Costa Rica. It reminds me that I'm here for a reason, which is to learn about the culture, meet people and see new things.  I'm hoping that I'll go back to watch another court case, but I'll make sure to get there early for a headset with the English translation. 

¡Pura Vida!