39
the manner and the place in which such violations were effected have
resulted in immense suffering for the victims and for their next of kin; and
b) they requested the Court that, when fixing the sum payable for the non
pecuniary damages sustained, it compensate, on equitable grounds, the pain,
the anguish and the distress suffered by the victims and their next of kin as a
result of the illegal detentions, the inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment
and the forced disappearances of Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto
Javier Hernández-Paz and José Francisco Rivas-Fernández. Likewise, the
Court must take into account the lack of information on the whereabouts of
Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto Javier Hernández-Paz and José
Francisco Rivas-Fernández, the denial of justice ─basically resulting from a
cover up pattern and from a serious impunity scheme─ and the concealing of
the truth about what happened, all to the detriment of the next of kin of the
aforementioned and of Venezuelan society.
Arguments by the State
85.
The State requested the Court to “order whatever be necessary to determine,
within the circumstances of the case, the amount of a compensation commensurate
with the intensity of the suffering the respective events caused to the victims and to
their next of kin and with the other non pecuniary consequences [...] on equitable
grounds.”
Considerations by the Court
86.
Non pecuniary damage may include distress and suffering, tampering with the
person’s core values and alterations of a non pecuniary nature in the victim’s living
conditions. As it is impossible to assess the value of non pecuniary damage in a
precise equivalent in money, the purpose of fully compensating the victims can be
served in but two ways. The first one is by paying the victim an amount of money or
by delivering property or services the worth of which may be established in money,
such as the Court may determine, by exercising reasonably its judicial discretion and
applying equitable standards. The second one is by public actions or works reaching
the general public, the effect of which, among others, be to recognize the victim’s
dignity and to avoid recurrence of human rights violations.52
87.
The Judgment, according to repeated international precedents, constitutes, in
and of itself, a form of reparation.53 However, considering the circumstances of the
instant case, the sufferings the events have caused the victims herein, the
alterations they all sustained in their living conditions and all the other consequences
of a non pecuniary nature they had to bear, the Court deems fit that compensation
be paid, on equitable grounds, for non pecuniary damages.
88.
In the first place, the Court considers that the circumstances of the detentions
and subsequent disappearances of Messrs. Oscar José Blanco-Romero, Roberto
Javier Hernández-Paz and José Francisco Rivas-Fernández (supra paras. 51(3),
52
Cf. Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre”, supra note 1, para. 282; Case of Gutiérrez-Soler, supra
note 1, para. 82; and Case of Acosta- Calder��n, supra note 44, para. 158.
53
Cf. Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre”, supra note 1, para. 285; Case of Raxcacó-Reyes, supra
note 1, para. 131; y Case of Gutiérrez-Soler, supra note 1, para. 83.
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