REPORT No. 63/11 CASE 12.221 MERITS JORGE OMAR GUTIÉRREZ AND FAMILY ARGENTINA March 31, 2011. I. SUMMARY 1. On May 12, 1999, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter the “Inter-American Commission,” the “Commission” or “the IACHR”) received a petition presented by the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS in its Spanish acronym) - which was broadened that same year by CELS, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL in its Spanish acronym) and Nilda Maldonado and Francisco Gutiérrez (all hereinafter to be known as “the petitioners”). The petition alleged that the State of Argentina (“the State” or “the Argentine State”) was internationally responsible for the death of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez (Argentine citizen, deputy commissioner with the Buenos Aires Police) at the hands of agents of the State. The complaint also refers to the alleged denial of judicial guarantees and a fair trial due to the failure to carry out a proper investigation and punish the State agents who supposedly took part in the facts. 2. From the start of their communications, the petitioners have held that the facts denounced comprise a violation of articles 4 (right to life), 8 (fair trial) and 25 (judicial protection) of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the American Convention” or “the Convention”) in concordance 1 with Article 1(1) of the Convention, to the detriment of Jorge Omar Gutierrez and his relatives . 3. In its Admissibility Report No. 1/03, the Commission decided that the allegations of the petitioners regarding the violation of the rights to life, fair trial, and judicial protection, guaranteed in articles 4, 8 and 25, in concordance with Article 1(1) of the American Convention, complied with the admissibility requirements provided for in articles 46 and 47(b) of the Convention. 4. With regard to the admitted complaints, the petitioners hold that the State is responsible for the conduct of its agents both in the death of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez and in the later denial of judicial protection and a fair trial to the detriment of his relatives. For its part, the State argued during the admissibility proceeding that the pleadings were groundless and the petitioners had not provided elements demonstrating the participation of State agents in Gutiérrez’ murder, nor the domestic judicial system’s failure to react to the crime. However, following the issuing of the report on admissibility, the 2 Argentine State did not submit any comments with regard to the merits of the matter. 5. In this report, the Commission concludes based on the allegations and information provided by the parties and the analysis of the records in the case file that the Argentine State is responsible for the violation of the right to life enshrined in Article 4 of the American Convention, with regard to Article 1(1) of the Convention, to the detriment of Jorge Omar Gutiérrez. Likewise, the Commission concludes that the State is responsible for the violation of the rights to humane treatment, a fair trial and judicial protection, as enshrined in articles 5, 8 and 25 of the American Convention, to the detriment of the relatives of the victim - specifically, his widow, their children and his brother - with regard to Article 1(1) of the Convention. 1 The relatives indicated by the petitioners as victims in this case are the widow of Deputy Commissioner Jorge Omar Gutiérrez - Nilda del Valle Maldonado - and their three children, Jorge Gabriel, David and Marlin Verónica Gutiérrez, as well as his brother, Francisco Virgilio Gutiérrez. 2 The parties had expressed their willingness to reach a friendly settlement in this case. However in 2005, the petitioners indicated that this was no longer a possibility.