REASONED OPINION OF JUDGE A.A.CANÇADO TRINDADE* 1. By means of the instant Judgment in Bulacio versus Argentina, to which I have concurred with my vote, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled on a case that clearly reflects the hazards of the human condition and the importance of the realization of justice and guarantees of non-recidivism of facts that are injurious to human rights, as a measure of reparation. Given the importance of the matter addressed by the Court, I feel it imperative to state, in the instant Separate Opinion, my personal reflections on it. 2. As stated in the proceeding before the Inter-American Court, the father and mother, son and daughter, constituted a family, like so many others, of simple and hardworking people,1 and, quite probably, happy perhaps without being aware of it. They lived their daily routine, joined by ties of affection that make life more worth living. This unburdened and unmysterious daily life lasted until the day in which destiny made this united family, well reconciled with life, face a harsh test. 3. One night the son, on his way to a music concert, was caught in a massive detention and beaten by agents of the public authority. When he died, a week later, he took with him the expectations that his family had in him, as the first-born son and an excellent student. Grief over the loss, under these circumstances, of the beloved one, made more acute by insensitivity of the public authorities and impunity of those responsible, had a devastating impact on the whole family. It soon became unbearable, to the point that the household disintegrated and the three survivors were thrown into depths of unending sadness. 4. Grief over the irreparable loss led the father to try to flee from reality, leaving behind his home. The attempt to begin a new life, with two children born from a new relationship, did not lessen his grief. He lost his job, and he survived three attempts to commit suicide. After suffering two heart attacks and undergoing a heart operation, he died nine years after the death of his son, from which he never recovered; he was finally able to rest, as he no longer wished to continue living,2 or surviving his beloved son. 5. The daughter, who was very young and saw her brother as a role model, fell into a state of depression, and twice tried to commit suicide. She now lives with her mother, in a state of seclusion, unable to establish new affective relations, to study or to work; she is the custodian of family life, or what is left of it, so that no one else dies. The mother suffered a deep and protracted depression, and today she shares with her daughter the weight of memories of lost happiness, and the passage of days burdened with an inescapable void. Other close relatives –such as the grandmother- also showed patterns of depression. * This translations is awaiting its final revision by the author. 1 . Cf. Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), Transcripción de la Audiencia Pública en el caso Bulacio versus Argentina (held at the seat of the Court on March 6 and 7, 2003), pp. 7-8, and cf. pp. 10-12 (internal circulation). 2 . Cf. IACtHR, Transcripción de la Audiencia Pública..., op. cit. supra n. (1), p. 10.