The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of the former members of the Parliament of Ecuador listed above, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/183/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 182nd session (April 2008),

Taking account of the information provided by the Vice-President of the Supreme Electoral Court at the hearing held with the Committee on 15 July 2008 and of his letter of 7 September 2008,

Taking account also of the information provided regularly by the source,

Recalling the following undisputed information on file:

• On 7 March 2007, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) dismissed 56 Congress members and debarred them for one year from participating in political life, declaring that they had interfered with the electoral process by voting in favour of the two National Congress resolutions calling for the dismissal and replacement of the TSE President, for lodging with the Constitutional Court an application for annulment of the resolution by the TSE to call for the referendum on the establishment of a Constituent Assembly as being unconstitutional, and for proposing impeachment proceedings against the four TSE members who had approved the resolution for a referendum; the dismissed members of Congress, who constituted more than half of its total membership, continued to meet in Quito, though outside of the parliamentary premises, as the Parliament of Ecuador;

• On 23 April 2007, the Constitutional Court ruled that the revocation of the mandates of the Congress members was unlawful, whereupon the TSE filed a request for clarification and amplification; on 24 April 2007, the National Congress, which had meanwhile replaced most of the dismissed parliamentarians with their substitutes, decided to dismiss the judges of the Constitutional Court on the grounds that their mandate had expired in January 2007;

• On 25 July 2007, the newly-designated Constitutional Court overturned their predecessor's decision of 23 April 2007, finding constitutional breaches and procedural flaws, the new decision being unappealable and hence final;

• On 12 October 2007, the dismissed parliamentarians presented a formal petition regarding their situation to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;

• On 10 January 2008, the Pichincha District Attorney General reactivated a previous request that criminal proceedings be instituted against 24 of the dismissed deputies for compromising State security and for overstepping their functions by setting up an unlawful parallel congress, which proceedings, if pursued, may again affect their political rights, the suspension of which - as part of the decision by the TSE to revoke their parliamentary mandate - expired in March 2008,

1. Thanks the Vice-President of the Supreme Electoral Court for his cooperation and the extensive information provided in this complex case;

2. Remains nevertheless convinced that the case raises fundamental concerns regarding a breach of parliamentary immunity and the unlawful revocation of the parliamentary mandate of more than half of the members of the Ecuadorian Congress;

3. Notes that since then significant developments have taken place in Ecuador, the most notable and recent being the adoption of a new Constitution by the people setting out a new institutional framework for the country;

4. Trusts that the 56 dismissed deputies can all stand in the forthcoming legislative elections should they so wish; calls therefore on the authorities to shelve any legal action that may be under way against 24 of the dismissed deputies in connection with activities directly linked to their parliamentary mandate and its revocation; would greatly appreciate receiving information on this point;

5. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the competent authorities and to the source;

6. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 120th Assembly of the IPU (April 2009).

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