INTRODUCTION

• 1. Due process of law is the cornerstone of the human rights protection system; it is, par excellence, the guarantor of all human rights and a sine qua non requirement for the existence of the rule of law. It is protected both in Article 6 of the European Convention and in Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (International Covenant or ICCPR). In the American Continent the existence of an international right to a fair trial is of paramount importance. Since its first case until now, the Court deals almost always with allegations of violations of Article 8 and 25, both of which comprise what the Court calls “access to justice” some case law of the Court differentiates between due process (Article 8) and judicial protection or access to justice (Article 25). The importance of the existence of an international right to a fair trial for this region cannot be underestimated.

• 2. In the wording of the Convention, the right to a fair trial is very broad. On the one hand, it seeks to protect the rights due to the parties to a conflict and, on the other, to have the conflict resolved in as just a manner as possible. This is so whether those conflicts are between private parties or State bodies or whether or not they deal with issues of human rights. In a separate paragraph, Article 8 regulates the requirements of criminal proceedings that determine the guilt or innocence of a person. As the Court holds, Article 8 “is not limited strictly to judicial remedies, ‘but to a series of requirements that must be observed by the procedural bodies’ so that a person may defend himself adequately against any act of the State that could affect his rights.” As an example of this broad scope, Article 8 covers, inter alia, individual clemency petitions, which in the case of Hilaire, Constantine and Benjamín et al., had been characterized by “a lack of transparency, lack of available information and lack of participation by the victims.”

• 3. The Convention establishes general requirements that must be met by all proceedings.