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deceased inmate, taking each victim’s particular circumstances into account.
Finally, the Commission was of the view that some monetary amount should
be set to compensate for post-fire consequences sustained by the children
injured in those fires, such as permanent injuries that will have an impact on
future job performance.
Pleadings of the representatives
285. The representatives argued that according to the testimony of certain victims,
the State did not pay some of the medical and burial expenses. However, no
documents were provided to support the damnum emergens and lucrum cessans
because, the representatives stated, it was difficult to contact the victims and their
next of kin. On the other hand, the next of kin or juveniles who were contacted do
not recall what expenses they incurred and have no records of those expenses. The
representatives therefore asked that for every juvenile who was interned in the
Center at any time during the period between August 14, 1996 and July 25, 2001,
the Court set an amount for pecuniary damages that takes the following
considerations into account:
a)
in the case of the deceased, the age at time of death, the average
minimum wage in Paraguay between 1996 and 2001, and the number of
years before they would reach the average life expectancy in Paraguay. They
also reasoned that when fixing the total compensation, the missed
opportunity should also be factored in, which is an allowance for the chance
that each fatality might have increased the earnings he was receiving from
the trade or vocation that he was performing at the time of his death, and the
potential impact that this might have had on his future wages;
b)
in the case of the injured, an amount that takes into account
consequences such as permanent injuries or disorders which will have an
impact on each victim’s future job performance, based on case-by-case
assessments done by the interdisciplinary team of professionals attending to
the victim’s medical and psychological care;
c)
in the case of all juveniles who were interned in the Center at any time
between August 14, 1996 and July 25, 2001, the inhuman conditions they
were forced to endure and the impact they will have on their future job
performance. On that basis, they requested a grant in equity to compensate
for the impact that time spent in that “infernal place” is having and will have
on their lives and that takes into account every day spent imprisoned; and
d)
in the case of the inmates transferred to adult prisons, the
representatives were seeking a grant in equity for every day each juvenile
spent in an adult prison, owing to the impact that experience will have on his
future job performance.
Pleadings of the State
286. The State’s argument was that inasmuch as it had not violated the right to life
(Article 4 of the Convention) –save for the responsibility it acknowledged in the
death of juvenile Benito Augusto Adorno- or the right to personal liberty (Article 7 of
the Convention), or the right to a fair trial (Article 8 of the Convention), in relation to
Article 1(1) of the Convention, no international responsibility can be attributed to it
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