Trindade saw the opportunity to put into practice what he had studied f
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 6:30 am
For me, as an undergraduate law student in Brazil, Cançado Trindade’s writings were always captivating and convincing. In a sea of pessimism and global injustice, his proposals for a more humanized international law sounded persuasive enough. I have probably watched and re-watched all his conferences and lectures available on the internet (apparently, he is the person with more lectures on the UN Audiovisual Library). I still remember the shock I felt when I arrived in Geneva to study international law and suddenly realised that not everyone was enthusiastic about jus cogens, that the pro persona principle was something that only existed in the “distant” Inter-American Human Rights System, and that Humankind was not a subject of international law.
The legal adviser
Cançado Trindade has also left a lasting mark on Brazilian human rights law as such. As legal advisor to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1985-1990) during the drafting of the 1988 Constitution, he played a key role in the inclusion of a monist perspective into the text of the new constitution. His proposal resulted in Article 5(2) of the Federal Constitution, which establishes the complementarity between the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and those provided by treaties and other sources of international law binding Brazil. His legal opinions were also fundamental to Brazil’s accession to different human rights treaties in the 1990s, including the Convention against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture among others.
In the years that followed, Cançado Trindade worked as a legal consultant for several UN agencies and other international organizations, while keeping a good relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1993, he was nominated director of the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights and later that year joined the Brazilian delegation to the World Conference on Human Rights. Due to his already notoriety in the field of international human rights law, he was elected in 1994 by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States to serve as a judge in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
In San José, Judge Cançado or two decades. During his mandate, the Inter-American Court developed a sophisticated, forward-looking case-law. Through his individual opinions, Cançado Trindade spearheaded the expansion of jus cogens beyond the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatments to include the principle of non-discrimination, access to justice, the prohibition of enforced disappearances, the proscription of self-amnesty laws, and serious violations of international humanitarian law. Under his presidency (1999–2004), the Court adopted a series of groundbreaking advisory opinions that shaped the debates about the right to information on consular assistance, the children’s rights, and the juridical condition of undocumented migrants. His influence in the jurisprudential developments of the Court was so immense, that some have called it the Corte Cançado Trindade.
In 2008, he was elected to the International Court of Justice with the highest investor database number of votes in the Court’s history (163 votes in the General Assembly and 14 in the Security Council). In 2018, he was the first Brazilian re-elected to the World Court. In the Hague, he gained even more international notoriety for his humanized weltanschauung and unique style. In a court designed to solve inter-state disputes, Cançado Trindade would always make sure to imprint his human-centred perspective. From cases and advisory proceedings concerning the protection of the environment, frontier disputes, self-determination, diplomatic protection, and state immunities to the preservation of marine mammals, nuclear disarmament, genocide, and seizure of documents and data: for him, the needs of individual human beings were front and centre.
While his ideas might have fell into the deaf ears of members of the profession in the Global North, the echoes of Cançado Trindade’s quest for a humanized jus gentium can already be heard in other parts of the globe. An example of that is the recent decision from the Supreme Court of Brazil which relied on his dissenting opinion in the Jurisdictional Immunities case to waive Germany’s immunities in a case involving the sinking of a merchant ship during WWII. Asked about being the smallest of the minorities, he would quote Isaiah Berlin’s Against the Current: one cannot settle for conventional wisdom but needs to seek for ways to improve the human condition. And that’s what he tried to do, swim against the current, in his own way. Instead of hiding under the veil of neutrality and impartiality, he was explicit about his commitments and worldview.
The legal adviser
Cançado Trindade has also left a lasting mark on Brazilian human rights law as such. As legal advisor to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1985-1990) during the drafting of the 1988 Constitution, he played a key role in the inclusion of a monist perspective into the text of the new constitution. His proposal resulted in Article 5(2) of the Federal Constitution, which establishes the complementarity between the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and those provided by treaties and other sources of international law binding Brazil. His legal opinions were also fundamental to Brazil’s accession to different human rights treaties in the 1990s, including the Convention against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture among others.
In the years that followed, Cançado Trindade worked as a legal consultant for several UN agencies and other international organizations, while keeping a good relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1993, he was nominated director of the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights and later that year joined the Brazilian delegation to the World Conference on Human Rights. Due to his already notoriety in the field of international human rights law, he was elected in 1994 by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States to serve as a judge in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
In San José, Judge Cançado or two decades. During his mandate, the Inter-American Court developed a sophisticated, forward-looking case-law. Through his individual opinions, Cançado Trindade spearheaded the expansion of jus cogens beyond the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatments to include the principle of non-discrimination, access to justice, the prohibition of enforced disappearances, the proscription of self-amnesty laws, and serious violations of international humanitarian law. Under his presidency (1999–2004), the Court adopted a series of groundbreaking advisory opinions that shaped the debates about the right to information on consular assistance, the children’s rights, and the juridical condition of undocumented migrants. His influence in the jurisprudential developments of the Court was so immense, that some have called it the Corte Cançado Trindade.
In 2008, he was elected to the International Court of Justice with the highest investor database number of votes in the Court’s history (163 votes in the General Assembly and 14 in the Security Council). In 2018, he was the first Brazilian re-elected to the World Court. In the Hague, he gained even more international notoriety for his humanized weltanschauung and unique style. In a court designed to solve inter-state disputes, Cançado Trindade would always make sure to imprint his human-centred perspective. From cases and advisory proceedings concerning the protection of the environment, frontier disputes, self-determination, diplomatic protection, and state immunities to the preservation of marine mammals, nuclear disarmament, genocide, and seizure of documents and data: for him, the needs of individual human beings were front and centre.
While his ideas might have fell into the deaf ears of members of the profession in the Global North, the echoes of Cançado Trindade’s quest for a humanized jus gentium can already be heard in other parts of the globe. An example of that is the recent decision from the Supreme Court of Brazil which relied on his dissenting opinion in the Jurisdictional Immunities case to waive Germany’s immunities in a case involving the sinking of a merchant ship during WWII. Asked about being the smallest of the minorities, he would quote Isaiah Berlin’s Against the Current: one cannot settle for conventional wisdom but needs to seek for ways to improve the human condition. And that’s what he tried to do, swim against the current, in his own way. Instead of hiding under the veil of neutrality and impartiality, he was explicit about his commitments and worldview.