95
b)
Public act acknowledging international responsibility to make reparation to the
victims and to commemorate those executed in the massacre
100. In its judgment on merits of April 29, 2004 (supra para. 18), the Court stated
that the State’s acknowledgment of responsibility made a positive contribution to the
evolution of this proceeding and to the application of the principles that inspire the
American Convention. The Court also recognizes that, during the public hearing held
on April 24, 2004, the State manifested “its profound regret for the events endured
and suffered by the Plan de Sánchez community on July 18, 1982, [and]
apologize[d] to the victims, the survivors and the next of kin[,] as an initial sign of
respect, reparation and guarantee of non-repetition.” However, for this declaration to
be fully effective as reparation to the victims and serve as a guarantee of nonrepetition, the Court considers that the State must organize a public act
acknowledging its responsibility for the events that occurred in this case to make
reparation to the victims. The act should be carried out in the village of Plan de
Sánchez, where the massacre occurred, in the presence of high-ranking State
authorities and, in particular, in the presence of the members of the Plan de Sánchez
community and the other victims in this case, inhabitants of the villages of
Chipuerta, Joya de Ramos, Raxjut, Volcanillo, Coxojabaj, Las Tunas, Las Minas, Las
Ventanas, Ixchel, Chiac, Concul and Chichupac; the leaders of these affected
communities must also take part in the act. The State must provide the means to
facilitate the presence of these persons in the said act. Also, Guatemala must
conduct this act in both Spanish and in Maya-Achí, and publicize it in the media. The
State shall carry out this activity within one year of notification of this judgment.
101. Bearing in mind the characteristics of the case as regards those who were
executed in the Plan de Sánchez massacre, carried out by State agents on July 18,
1982, the Court considers that, during this act, the State must honor publicly the
memory of those executed, most of them members of the Mayan indigenous people,
belonging to the Achí linguistic community, who were the inhabitants of the village of
Plan de Sánchez and also the villages of Chipuerta, Joya de Ramos, Raxjut,
Volcanillo, Coxojabaj, Las Tunas, Las Minas, Las Ventanas, Ixchel, Chiac, Concul and
Chichupac. The State must take into account the traditions and customs of the
members of the affected communities in this act
c)
Translation of the judgments of the Court into the Maya-Achí language
102. The Court considers that the State must translate the American Convention
on Human Rights into the Maya-Achí language, if this has not been done already, as
well as the judgment on merits delivered by the Court on April 29, 2004, and this
judgment. Guatemala must also provide the necessary resources to publicize these
texts in the municipality of Rabinal and deliver them to the victims of the instant
case. To this end, the State has one year from notification of this judgment.
d)
Publication of the pertinent parts of the judgments of the Court
103. Furthermore, and as it has ordered on other occasions,270 the Court considers
that, as a measure of satisfaction, the State must publish, at least once, in the
official gazette and in another daily newspaper with national circulation, in Spanish
and in Maya-Achí, the section entitled Proven Facts in Chapter V, and the first to
270
Cf. Case of Tibi, supra note 3, para. 260; Case of the “Juvenile Reeducation Institute”, supra note
3, para. 315, and Case of Ricardo Canese, supra note 3, para. 209.
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