Paraguay

CEJIL welcomes the creation of a UN Special Rapporteurship on Truth, Justice, and Reparation

This new body will coordinate actions with the Inter-American System of Human Rights

Washington, DC, September 29, 2011. - The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) welcomes today’s decision made by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution that appoints a special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. The resolution was adopted by consensus and received wide support, as it was co-sponsored by more than 75 countries.

Thu, 09/29/2011

CEJIL specifically applauds the stated purpose of coordinated action between the rapporteurship and the organs of the Inter-American System for Human Rights, which could translate into a better compliance of international obligations pertaining to human rights.

The rapporteur has the challenge of ensuring that States make progress in revoking laws that guarantee impunity, as well as proposing public policies and laws that guarantee the right to reparation.

CEJIL believes that the new mechanism should resume studies conducted by the United Nations regarding amnesties and impunity. Equally important would be to defend the right to file an appeal and obtain reparations for victims of violations of the international human rights law and gross violations of international humanitarian law.

The person in charge of the rapporteurship will have a three-year mandate and will report annually to the Human Rights Council and the United Nations General Assembly.

The rapporteur’s duties will include: a) to contribute, upon request, to the provision of technical assistance; b) to gather relevant information on national situations, including on the normative framework, on national practices and experiences, such as truth and reconciliation commissions and other mechanisms, relating to the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence in addressing gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law, and to study trends, developments and challenges and to make recommendations thereon; c) to identify, exchange and promote good practices and lessons learned, as well as to identify potential additional elements with a view to recommend ways and means to improve and strengthen the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; and, d) to make recommendations concerning, inter alia, judicial and non-judicial measures when designing and implementing strategies, policies and measures for addressing gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law.

During the rapporteur’s mandate a study will be undertaken to promote “a systematic and coherent approach on issues pertaining to the mandate,” which will compile information from different sources. The rapporteurship will have to “work in close coordination, while avoiding unnecessary duplication, with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, other special procedures of the Human Rights Council, and with other relevant actors.”

“Without any doubt, this decision contributes to making a reality of the rights to truth, justice, and the reparation for millions of victims of gross human rights violations and survivors worldwide,” stated CEJIL’s Executive Director, Viviana Krsticevic.

Krsticevic added that the wide support the resolution has received is vital for ensuring this mechanism’s legitimacy and efficacy.

“We hope that the work of the new rapporteurship will allow for a qualitative leap when addressing the thematic in various countries across Latin America – such as Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, and Mexico, amongst other nations – that still require significant progress in guaranteeing these fundamental rights and the fight against impunity,” she concluded.

CEJIL Participated in Eight Issues Deliberated by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

LXXXIV Period of Ordinary Sessions

In the most recent period of ordinary sessions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which was extended until October 3rd, CEJIL took part in eight of the thirteen issues deliberated by the judges.

Fri, 09/25/2009

Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos

In the last period of ordinary sessions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which was extended until October 3rd, 2009, CEJIL took part in eight of the thirteen issues deliberated by the judges.

Themes and cases addressed by CEJIL were present in four monitoring compliance with judgment, in a follow-up on Venezuela provisional measures, in a study of a case merits, in the analysis of reforms to the Rules of the Court and in a consideration of an advisory opinion.

The sessions on the monitoring compliance with judgment referred to the cases of the Juvenile Reeducation Institute (Panchito López) vs Paraguay, Montero Aranguren and others (Reten de Catia) vs Venezuela, Molina Theissen vs Guatemala and Trujillo Oroza vs Bolivia. CEJIL has represented or co-represented the victims in all of these cases.

In these cases, the Court heard in a private hearing the arguments from the State, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the representatives of the victims.

Also in a closed session, the Court deliberated the preliminary objection, merits, reparations and costs in the case of Kenneth Ney Anzualdo Castro vs Peru.

The Court had a public hearing to receive information and observations from the parties on the compliance of the provisional measures ordered to Venezuela's government in the case of the prisons of La Pica, Uribana and Yare I and II.

In the second stage of the reflection process on the reforms to the rules of the Inter-American Court, the Court began its consideration of the comments sent by CEJIL and other actors of the inter-American system.

Finally, the judges also analyzed the observations and amicus curiae sent by several actors of the inter-American system, among them CEJIL,on an advisory opinion submitted by the State of Argentina in connection with the role of the ad hoc judge and the equality of parts in the proceedings before the Court, as well as in regards to the nationality of the judges of the Court and the right to an independent and impartial judge.

Vargas Areco / Paraguay

The case of Vargas Areco demonstrates a practice that was common in the Paraguayan armed forces: the forced recruitment of children and the treatment with which they were controlled. Gerardo Vargas Areco, a 15-year-old child soldier, died on December 30, 1989, when a non-commissioned officer with the Paraguayan Army shot him for trying to escape his military unit’s punishment for having been late from a leave to spend Christmas with his family.

The case of Vargas Areco demonstrates a practice that was common in the Paraguayan armed forces: the forced recruitment of children and the treatment with which they were controlled.

CEJIL and the Peace and Justice Service-Paraguay (SERPAJ-PY) denounced the practices before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 1999 and afterward brought the case before the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

On December 30, 1989, Gerardo was arrested as a punishment for not having voluntarily returned on time to the Villarica military base, after a leave of five days to visit with his family during Christmas.

Without giving a satisfactory explanation about what happened to this date, on December 31, the family was advised that Gerardo had died. His parents received a sealed coffin and instructions that it wasn’t to be opened.

Ignoring the order, the parents opened the coffin and found that their child’s corpse had multiple lesions that they discovered as signs of torture and a shot from a gun in his back. A medical report confirmed the existence of the lesions.

In the military court, the soldier who shot the child was sentenced to one year in prison in 1990.

In the ordinary court, the case was stalled between 1991 and 1997. The judge that brought about the inquiry asked various forensic experts to find out if the child had been tortured, but due to the absence of formal autopsies on the corpse, the experts weren’t able to come to a conclusion.

In 2005, the ordinary court sentenced the non-commissioned officer that shot the child to one year in prison for the crime of first-degree murder, but the tribunal left him free because the punishment had already been given by the military court.

The child’s parents, CEJIL and SERPAJ-Paraguay brought the case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1999. In 2006, the Inter-American Court condemned Paraguay for human rights violations against Gerardo.

The Court ordered Paraguay to pay a compensation to the family, to offer public apologies, to train military members in human rights, and to reform the national laws so that they were in line with the international regulations against recruiting child soldiers.