to López Burgos, including immediate release, permis
sion to leave Uruguay and compensation for the viola
tions which he has suffered, and to take steps to ensure
that similar violations do not occur in the future.
such an extent that the very substance of those rights and freedoms
would be annihilated; individuals are legally barred from avaihng
themselves of the same rights and freedoms with a view to over
throwing the régime of the rule of law which constitutes the basic
philosophy of the Covenant. In the present case, however, the
Covenant does not even provide the pretext for a "right" to
perpetrate the criminal acts which, according to the Committee's
conviction, have been perpetrated by the Uruguayan authorities.
APPENDIX
T o construe the words "within its territory" pursuant to their
strict literal meaning as excluding any responsibility for conduct oc
curring beyond the national boundaries would, however, lead to ut
terly absurd results. The formula was intended to take care of o b
jective difficukies which might impede the implementation of the
Covenant in specific situations. Thus, a State party is normally
unable to ensure the effective enjoyment of the rights under the
Covenant to its citizens abroad, having at its disposal only the tools
of diplomatic protection with their Hmited potential. Instances of
occupation of foreign territory offer another example of situations
which the drafters of the Covenant had in mind when they confined
the obligation of States parties to their own territory. All these fac
tual patterns have in c o m m o n , however, that they provide plausible
grounds for denying the protection of the Covenant. It may be con
cluded, therefore, that it was the intention of the drafters, whose
sovereign decision cannot be challenged, to restrict the territorial
scope of the Covenant in view of such situations where enforcing
the Covenant would be hkely to encounter exceptional obstacles.
Never was it envisaged, however, to grant States parties unfettered
discretionary power to carry out wilful and dehberate attacks
against the freedom and personal integrity of their citizens hving
abroad. Consequently, despite the wording of article 2 (1), the
events which took place outside Uruguay come within the purview
of the Covenant.
Individual opinion submitted by a member of the Human Rights
Committee under rule 94 (3) of the Committee's provisional rules of
procedure
Communication
No.
52/1979
Individual opinion appended to the Committee's views at the re
quest of Mr. Christian Tomuschat:
I concur in the views expressed by the majorhy. None the less, the
arguments set out in paragraph 12 for affirming the applicability of
the Covenant also with regard to those events which have taken
place outside Uruguay need to be clarified and expanded. Indeed,
the first sentence in paragraph 12.3, according to which article 2 (1)
of the Covenant does not imply that a State party "cannot be held
accountable for violations of rights under the Covenant which its
agents commit upon the territory of another State", is too broadly
framed and might therefore give rise to misleading conclusions. In
principle, the scope of application of the Covenant is not suscep
tible to being extended by reference to article 5, a provision de
signed to cover instances where formally rules under the Covenant
seem to legitimize actions which substantially run counter to its pur
poses and general spirit. Thus, Governments may never use the hmitation clauses supplementing the protected rights and freedoms to
Communication No. 56/1979
Submitted by: Lihan Celiberti de Casariego on 17 July 1979
Alleged victim: The author
State party: Uruguay
Date of adoption of views: 29 July 1981 (thirteenth session)
Submission to lACHR—Same
matter—Habeas cor
pus—Arrest in and abduction from another State—
Jurisdiction of State party—Arbitrary arrest—Deten
tion
incommunicado—Access
to
counsel—
Procedural delays
2.2 Since 1974 Lihan Cehberti de Casariego, a
Uruguayan citizen by birth and of Italian nationality
based on jus sanguinis, had been hving in Milan, Italy,
with her husband and two children. Mrs. Cehberti had
been authorized to leave Uruguay in 1974. While in
Uruguay she had been an active member of the Resisten
cia Obrero-Estudiantil and in this connection she had
been arrested for "security reasons", and subsequently
released, several times. In 1978 Mrs. Celiberti, her two
children (3 and 5 years of age) and Universindo
Rodriguez Diaz, a Uruguayan exile hving in Sweden,
travelled to Porto Alegre (Brazil) purportedly to contact
Uruguayan exiles living there. The author claims that,
based on information gathered, inter alia, by represen
tatives of private international organizations, the
Lawyers' Association in Brazil, journahsts, Brazilian
parliamentarians and Italian authorities, Mrs. Celiberti
was arrested on 12 November 1978 together with her
two children and Universindo Rodriguez Diaz in their
apartment, in Porto Alegre, by Uruguayan agents with
the connivance of two Brazilian police officials (against
whom relevant charges have been brought by Brazilian
authorities in this connection). From 12 November
probably to 19 November 1978, Mrs. Celiberti was de-
Articles of Covenant: 2 (1), 5 (1), 9 (1), 10 (1) and
14(3)
Articles of Optional Protocol: 1 and 5 (2) (b).
Views under articles 5 (4) of the Optional Protocol'
1. The author of the communication (initial letter
dated 17 July 1979 and further letters dated 5 and 20
March 1980), is Francesco Cavallaro, practising lawyer
in Milan, Italy, acting on behalf of Lilian Celiberti de
Casariego, who is imprisoned in Uruguay. The lawyer
has submitted a duly authenticated copy of a General
Power of Attorney to act on her behalf.
2.1 In his submission of 17 July 1979 the author of
the communication alleges the following:
' The text of an individual opinion submitted by a Committee
member is appended to these views.
92
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