The legal action for failure to comply as a mechanism for demanding compliance of judgements and reports by international human rights bodies regarding Ecuador

Abstract

The 2008 Constitution differed from the 1998 Constitution on the issue of jurisdictional guarantees for the protection of human rights. The object of this article is to study one of the jurisdictional guarantees included in the Montecristi Constitution: the legal action for failure to comply (acción por incumplimiento). In the first section, I reflect on the legal enforceability that the Constitution attributes to international human rights instruments and how this influences the enforceability of decisions by international bodies created by those instruments. In the second section, I analyze if the legal action for failure to comply constitutes a tool to demand that the Ecuadorean State implement decisions by international human rights bodies and to give effect to the international jurisdiction of human rights. In particular, I identify some of the risks and weaknesses associated with the use of this guarantee regarding decisions of international human rights bodies, with a view towards demonstrating that establishing a truly efficient mechanism for compliance of international human rights obligations assumed by the Ecuadorean States is still lacking.