4
of evidence in the file, the Court has reached the conclusion that the
international responsibility of the State has resulted from a set of
actions and omissions by State agents and private citizens, conducted
in a coordinated, parallel or linked manner, with the aim of carrying
out the massacre. (...) Since the acts committed by the paramilitary
against the victims in the instant case cannot be considered mere acts
amongst private individuals, as they are linked to actions and
omissions by State officials, the State is found to be responsible for
said acts, based on non-fulfillment of its erga omnes treaty obligations
to ensure the effective exercise of human rights in said relations
amongst individuals” (paras. 122-124).
14.
There is no way to avoid finding the respondent State responsible for conduct
in violation of human rights in the cas d'espèce, nor is it a matter of doing so. To
attempt to do this, under the circumstances of the instant case, would involve a
fruitless and in abstracto interpretive exercise, devoid of meaning and of juridical
value. There is no way to avoid recognizing both the failings and omissions of the
public State authorities regarding prevention and conclusive investigation of the
violations committed in the instant case, and the support or collaboration provided,
directly or indirectly, by public State authorities to the paramilitary, in committing
grave violations of human rights under the American Convention. By finding the
State internationally responsible for the above, the Court has faithfully applied the
significant provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights, which constitute
the applicable law in the specific case.
15.
The facts are richer than the formulations of precepts, they predate the latter,
and they must constantly be reformulated in light of the core principles of the law of
nations, to attain the realization of justice. In conclusion, regarding the point under
examination –that of attributing international responsibility to the respondent State
(imputability)-, the instant case of the Mapiripán Massacre did not only involve acts
by “mere private citizens” or only “tolerance” by the State. It has been proven that
there was, also, an effective collaboration by the armed forces of the State with the
paramilitary or “self-defense” groups, thus also involving State agents, and
constituting a set of grave actions and omissions that have entailed violations of
human rights in an especially cruel manner, definitively making the State
internationally responsible.
16.
In a country such as Colombia, with a noteworthy and respectable juridical
tradition (including the sphere of International Law6), cradle of the inter-American
system, it is not surprising that its own Constitutional Court –in addition do other
domestic legal bodies- has espoused this same interpretation of the facts regarding
the paramilitary that scourge the country, -as the Inter-American Court has
appropriately recalled in the instant Judgment (paras. 118-119), which also referred
to similar comments made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights7 (para. 120). These facts are, therefore, publicly known and notorious, both
domestically and internationally.
.
As exemplified by the successive writings, throughout the 20th century, of –for example- J.M.
Yepes, F. Urrutia, J.J. Caicedo Castilla, D. Uribe Vargas, and A. Vázquez Carrizosa.
6
.
Regarding the human rights situation in Colombia in the year 1997; U.N. doc. E/CN.4/1998, of
09.03.1998, paras. 29 and 91.
7
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