incomplete all of them all of even my own definition that i have right now is in complete it bring this into practical matter to do question on whether or not not so easy to keep working on it in then you get understand that many other legal concepts they evolve you know and oppress the bees depends on how the evil mine is easier maybe to say what is not peace and probably all of you are going to say yes violence and war and threats but it's much more than that because we have structural violence that so contradicting myself i try to bring some sort of not stone written definition that peace is a state in which all human rights are  is waiting for the moment to come up it's a tough thing actually to to achieve peace i don't like talking behind the desks which is so the evolution of the human right to be in costa rica actually did not have started with the abolishment of the army it's a very interesting story because as you might know or the president as a school teacher understood the value of education and he declared in the constitution education mandatory and paid by the state same as health care in eight hundred twenty four venezuela in eight hundred seventy one the last military men to run to president office in costa rica prohibited the participation of military men in elections or political affairs a military man prohibited all their military men to participate in politics and and then the story went by and then we had the revolution of  after daddy nine hundred sixty nine in costa rica we drafted and approved the inter american convention of human rights known us to pack of sun and sail schools of course to rica and one thousand nine hundred eighty three president solution he said i'm going to acquire an international obligation for the country that will prevent me legally to keep them the permission they want so he declared costa rica neutral and then he said i'm n a conflict resolution law for the promotion of social peace so it's it's quite a long story of peaceful activity you know aim and keep in a way from the conflicts that wear happening in the region because every all other single country in the region especially in central america was on their war since the sixt i named the presentation evolution practice and obstacles because things changed in costa rica due to the  actually was a resolution from one thousand nine hundred to the court declared that the value of peace was a founding principle of the nation and we're going to go over that later then in two thousand and four they rule the iraqi in that case was also warned and then we had the dysfunctional constitutional system from two thousand and seven on where they refused to try any of my cases anymore always make take the time to to make a few clarifications because not only i was able to do what i have gone because i'm ill tempered and but also because i had to lay the legal remedies i mean there were the legal remedies that i could use you know to file these suits for instance you don't have the right to go before the supreme by the constitution in the end the constitution needs supposed to be the reflection of the society of the people that will of the people but we are blocking the people to actually make their will so i always make these clarification that there where and there are mechanisms in costa rica that allow us to demand justice constitutional level not just a matter of legality so march nineteenth two thousand and invasion and right at the moment that day invasion began costa rican president came out on the media and said we are supporting the coalition of the w and next day and the following day some polls were run in order to get the opinion of the population and two questions do you support the war in iraq or do you support supporting the war on terror and the numbers for didn't know where ninety nine point two and ninety nine point six percent of the population against the decision of the government which was very good for me because now the court had no other choice but to rule in my favor politically you know because these constitutional courts are not jews bodies of legality and you have a perfect example with your own supreme court is a political body it's a political body they rule on politics and some days they rule on nonsense for instance the resolution of the supreme court is saying that international law is binding to the federal government but not to each state ok so i don't get it so several things came out of these case in the first important thing that came out of this case relates with the acts of a state doctrine any of you familiar to the acts of a state doctrine ok the acts of a state doctrine says that there are some political acts made by the government that are that escape jurisdiction constitutional supremacy like basically every country in the word right because if the constitution needs a supreme law of the nation every single activity performed by government officers or even individuals has to comply with the constitution mean arbitrariness is not our right of the government no case because these acts of state doctrine have been going on for about a hundred and fifty years but we we've fallen in the iraqi work a's one of these limited cases that make constitution that says that you cannot actually try acts of the state in and this was the first implored in outcome of this case now the government just cannot do whatever they want we have a very complex constitutional system because we have a written constitution and we have an unwritten constitution there are three countries in the word where if you go to a bookstore and you try to buy a constitution you not going to get it then the court ruled out that see this is a member of the u n and costa rican established in the u n charter because we joined the u n and seems to security council ever out the rising invasion of iraq the government was violating article seven of the constitution and international law at the same time even forward a case of moral support as the government claiming that they were given a moral support anything as immoral supporting in such a war like the one on iraq did was another important outcome of of this case because this is what happened when i wrote t suit starting third year i didn't know much about law or international or constitutional lawyer any little  i didn't know much but when the hearing two plays a year and a half later i had gone through constitutional law classes and international law classes and every single word i said at the hearing was related to international law i did not to speak one word on constitutional law and the government was not prepared for that all their arguments were based on the mystic law and the costa rica ninety ninety five that international human rights law instrumental in the costa rican system have a rank above the constitution now legally and technically these is absurd but practically is very good i mean it helps a lot and i am always going after to supreme court because they write these resolutions not really on in this specific case the court refused to recognize us or right they kept saying that it's a fundamental value of the nation that is a founding principle of the nation that is a core value of the people but the word right was not there yet these this is specific part of the case was important because from from here on it was clear that we could apply international law domestically in domestic courts something that doesn't really happen that much of the resolution is this so the late to support it in the order to costa rican government to withdraw their support and to withdraw the name from the policeman of the willing thing that happened just three days after the ruling calling powell sent faxed to my house saying i hate you because the rico is not any more in the list so well  done i wish we had these modern faxes that are printers we had the old ones that the lead time so it's quite a pity because i don't have that document anymore but the it has to be in the  went back to the supreme court and with a little bit more militia now i did this exercise and international law we have something an international obligation created so we had these two elements that we got to demonstrate and countries demonstrate in day i see a in the in the hague for instance  and they didn't so the international court of justice said that as a representative of the state as a plenty and sherry you cannot just come out and say stuff i mean if you say according to these theory the obligation has configurator and the right to peace is an obligation created by practice and by the always like to read these ruling it cannot be more clear it says on the right to peace the first time the court actually wrote right on the issue of the core has pointed that it is a supreme principle of the political constitution and of core value of the costa rican identity moreover it has been considered a valley both of domestic and international here documents and then they quote it is part of the iraqi work case it is evident that the people of costa rica tired of a history of death clashes dictators in marja nation from benefits of development decided from spirit is proclaimed a spirit of peace and tolerance from their own military headquarters in bali could transform into museums and learning centers and the country reason and laws mechanisms to resolve disputes in and out of the country for a bed is taken in human development while the right to be free and peacefully is proclaim on that day the nation change we decided that any cause that the pursuit of peace could bring would be always far lesser than the there's a reasonable and reasonable mous it is very clear to me that the court actually took history into account and they  have the exercise of applying these international public law mechanisms domestically which is a very interesting exercise because this is not the normal thing that happens and the effects of these naive attempt we want to call it like that outstanding being and i don't like talking about my cases these way but i just cannot deny the importance of these cases so are even certain types of weapons that are manufactures specifically for the use of war in war therefore a country wishing to promote peace both domestically and internationally must take care to restrict the manufacture and or of weapons and chemicals in their territory so that leave rejecting those that by their nature have been thought and created to promote the negative value of war so the court talked about both positive and negative negative you have to refrain from getting involved in these activities and they went further and they said that costa rica has to refrain to get involved in any activity to mean you've got i engage and you've got to get involved and you cannot just keep going outside of the country given these beautiful speeches that are just empty words you don't materialize is an expert on environmental law so he thought important to include that nuclear weapons are a threat to the right to a healthy environment article fifty of costa rica school situation says that everybody has the right to a healthy and ecologically balance environment so just is that the production of these items and you know destruct now the court and you lated the decrease and these was in two thousand the ruling came out in two thousand and eight now during this time and if you remember to slide when i talked about that these functional constitutional system it began in two thousand and seven but this ruling these from two thousand and eight i thought that these ruling was going to be reject because of legal grounds but because of political matters and there is something i got to tell you about why i am saying this us car arias was president rica the congress is the one that appoints supreme court justice so suddenly three justices where out of the court and three new justices were put into their places in according to the law on constitutional jurisdiction you cannot try to sing case twice and the court has not tried any case twice but this one and now they've ruled that the men men now was unconstitutional so arias run again and did not warn but he made it into office just like the first time same thing you know so i thought these food was going to be rejected because it would the list of specific items that were of a specific commercial interest for the country this is the rica's an extreme point three not any other central american country included these items in there and it's only the peaceful loving country of course now if i sat on a chair i waited and i waited and cuffed that was passed and i late so these case i actually took it to the inter marry can commission of human rights because it is obvious that there was a denial of my access to just the however however the armed secret case and the case i having been in d c is preventing the country to start manufacturing these weapons that was made by the will of the people or you and charter starts with we need to people of the united nations so it was meant to be an empowering people clearly clearly stating that rights of the people shall not only come from domestic law by but also from international law and the clue example of that is international human rights instruments is international law that applies domestically it is then then he's clear that there is no difference with international public the united states said no you don't have jurisdiction you know to try this case the court ruled no we do have jurisdiction in the united states ok then you have your own case because i'm not going he could i won the case and the u the possibility of utilizing international law domestically and he's very important any case i bring to the supreme court i do not ride a word on domestic law unless  strictly necessary but i go to international human rights instrument because to order very wisely said that they were above the constitution and that they were binding specifically specific clauses that don't have the intention to create a domestic obligation for example the schools i mean unless i'm going to the church i don't declare statement which is a peace clause so i've been working on this thing to do in order to try to combine the government to use to costa rican constitution to help me with the cases internationally to sue costa rica based on our constitutional law i have not succeeded on that but i've tried amount to the question is there their international ration from the threat or use of force i don't know these guys have read the un charter before going to the un but i think not because  is the poor of international public  single war that has ended as and that would an agreement that requires to leave in peace every single one every single international human rights instrument its aim succes right we don't need that that duration that we are working on i mean if we make it is going to be good but we don't and hear because i write or listen to your questions and see what you really want to hear because i might have said a bunch of things that you don't want to hear and these are fundamental questions that we our ourselves particularly the last question what is free to pry to do something just to try so when i submitted the first suit against the war on iraq i ate really didn't know where were the boundaries said legally you know indeed international law applied or when he didn't apply i didn't know so my argument patient was an act of ignorance if you want to call it that way i didn't know where the boundaries actually do what we want to do for instance i want to change dogg bold as i am these stole i don't reach the boat so what do i have to do to reach the boat that i bring the ladder the latter is the mechanisms so whatever i don't have a ladder i got i so what do i have to do to reach the ball and i have been will now that i'm under stand if you things and i understand but disregard under things i try to think on my activity as stepping stones so how can i make these so i can use later to something bigger in these means these and of neurons than i even is and rage that all combine in these cases because i was very upset when i was running right into first suit