20
69.
Article 1(1) of the American Convention provides that:
The States Parties to this Convention undertake to respect the rights and freedoms recognized
herein and to ensure to all persons subject to their jurisdiction the free and full exercise of
those rights and freedoms, without any discrimination for reasons of race, color, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or
any other social condition.
70.
Article 2, for its part, provides that States have a duty to adopt domestic legislative
measures, and reads as follows:
Where the exercise of any of the rights or freedoms referred to in Article 1 is not already
ensured by legislative or other provisions, the States Parties undertake to adopt, in
accordance with their constitutional processes and the provisions of this Convention, such
legislative or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to those rights or freedoms.
71.
Again in application of the principle of iura novit curia, in this merits phase of the
case the Commission will examine the application of Article 8 of the Inter-American Convention to
Prevent and Punish Torture as it provides that States have an obligation to investigate “if there is an
accusation or well-grounded reason to believe that an act of torture has been committed within their
jurisdiction,” applicable to the facts of the present case as of the time that the Convention entered
into force with respect to the Chilean State. That provision reads as follows:
The States Parties shall guarantee that any person making an accusation of having been subjected to
torture within their jurisdiction shall have the right to an impartial examination of his case.
Likewise, if there is an accusation or well-grounded reason to believe that an act of torture has been
committed within their jurisdiction, the States Parties shall guarantee that their respective authorities
will proceed properly and immediately to conduct an investigation into the case and to initiate,
whenever appropriate, the corresponding criminal process.
After all the domestic legal procedures of the respective State and the corresponding appeals have
been exhausted, the case may be submitted to the international fora whose competence has been
recognized by that State.
72.
The States’ obligation to ensure means that States “must prevent, investigate and
punish any violation of the rights recognized by the Convention and, moreover, if possible attempt
to restore the right violated and provide compensation as warranted for damages resulting from the
violation” 68 The central issue that the Commission is called upon to examine in the instant case is
whether or not the State complied with its duty to ensure the free and full exercise of the rights of
Mr. García Lucero and his family, particularly the obligations incumbent upon the Chilean State by
virtue of that duty to ensure with respect to the investigation of and reparations for the acts of
torture. The Commission will now examine the facts contested in the present case as regards those
two obligations that follow from the duty to ensure the right to personal integrity protected under
Article 5(1) of the American Convention, in its procedural dimension. Additionally, as it relates to
the obligation to investigate in the instant case, the Commission will also examine the Chilean
State’s duty to adopt domestic legislative measures.
1.
Obligation to investigate
73.
The Inter-American Court has held that “the right to judicial access must secure the
right of the alleged victims or their next of kin to have every measure taken such that the truth of
68
166.
I/A Court H.R., Case of Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras. Judgment of July 29, 1988. Series C No. 4, para.