Human Rights Brief
Dean Grossman and WCL Students Appear Before Inter-American
Court
by Dee Daniels*
Through an application process with the Washington College of Law (WCL), three WCL students were selected to accompany Claudio Grossman, Dean and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (Court). The Court is located in San Jose, Costa Rica, and held its 44th regular session from November 12-25, 2000. As a member and current President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Commission), Dean Grossman was selected to serve, along with Professor Helio Bicudo, as a Commission delegate for the Awas Tingni case. In that capacity, Dean Grossman supervised the overall preparation of the case, developed case strategy, and formulated the opening and closing statements. The Dean brought WCL students because of his desire to advance WCL' s mission of providing students who are dedicated to human rights with the opportunity of obtaining practical experience in human rights law.
Dean Grossman and the Commission presented to the Court the case of the Sumo Indian Community of Awas Tingni. The Sumo indigenous people, who are from the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, suffered human rights abuses and live in a precarious state of existence because of the Nicaraguan Government' s failure to recognize the Awas Tingni Community' s right to their land. The latest incidence of this failure resulted in the Nicaraguan government unlawfully conceding their land to SOLCARSA, a South Korean company seeking to profit from the resources in their fertile lands. The concession resulted in SOLCARSA exploiting the Awas Tingni land and even logging areas located outside of the conceded area. After exhausting all domestic remedies, the Awas Tingni Community presented a successful petition to the Commission as to the injustices they suffered. Convinced of the legitimacy of the claim, the Commission presented the first indigenous land rights case before the Court.
Indigenous rights leaders from various communities in the Americas as well as international human rights advocates constituted the majority of the Court' s audience. The most impressive component of the audience, however, was the attendance of 23 members of the Awas Tingni Community. The majority of community members who attended did not own birth certificates or any identification, and had never traveled outside of their land in Nicaragua. Thus the gathering of these members outside of their home was a significant feat. The participating students were able to interact with the Awas Tingni Community members and discuss the case with Dean Grossman and the other members of the Commission who represented the Awas Tingni Community before the Court.
Since the Court does not allow its sessions to be televised or videotaped for security reasons, the only way to observe a session is by attending one. Although the WCL students had no formal role in the hearing, observing a case is the best introduction to the Court. It provided the students with the valuable opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the jurisprudence and procedures of the Inter-American human rights system. Dean Grossman plans on taking three more students to observe and participate in another case that will come before the Court in the 2001-2002 academic year. In addition to reading the briefs and becoming knowledgeable about the case, these students may be able to prepare witnesses and participate in researching the legal arguments involved.
* Dee Daniels is a J.D. candidate at the Washington College of Law. She participated in the presentation of the Awas Tingni case before the Court.
The proper citation for this article in the Human Rights Brief Volume 8, Issue 2, beginning at page 35 is: 8 No. 2 Hum. Rts. Brief 35 (2001).
