Structural Litigation at the Interamerican System

Notes from the Cuscul Pivaral and other v. Guatemala case

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the possibilities of conducting structural litigation at the Interamerican System of Human Rights Protection. Initially, brief considerations will be made about the Inter-American System and the respective litigation process for the analysis of human rights violations, highlighting the different steps taken before the Inter-American Commission and Court. Soon after, there will be a presentation of the proceedings of the Cuscul Pivaral and other vs. Guatemala case, which culminated in the condemnatory sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Subsequently, after examining the origin, concept and characteristics of the structural process, an attempt will be made to demonstrate the similarity of the structural process to the inter-American process under analysis, and the sentence given to the State of Guatemala may be considered a structural decision. The methodology used was the study of the Cuscul Pivaral y otros vs. Guatemala, whose choice occurred because it was the first opportunity on which the Inter-American Court ruled on the violation of the principle of prohibition against social retrogression, based on art. 26 of the American Convention on Human Rights.