43
The State Parties undertake to prevent and punish torture in accordance with
the terms of th[e Inter-American] Convention [against Torture].
Article 2
For the purposes of this Convention, torture shall be understood to be any act
intentionally performed whereby physical or mental pain or suffering is inflicted on a
person for purposes of criminal investigation, as a means of intimidation, as personal
punishment, as a preventive measure, as a penalty, or for any other purpose. Torture
shall also be understood to be the use of methods upon a person intended to obliterate
the personality of the victim or to diminish his physical or mental capacities, even if they
do not cause physical pain or mental anguish.
Article 6
In accordance with the terms of Article 1 [of the Inter-American Convention
against Torture], the States Parties shall take effective measures to prevent and punish
torture within their jurisdiction.
Article 9
The States Parties undertake to incorporate into their national laws regulations
guaranteeing suitable compensation for victims of torture.
106. In the previous chapter, the Court found that the State violated Rafael
Samuel and Emilio Moisés Gómez Paquiyauri’s right to personal liberty by detaining
them unlawfully and arbitrarily and by not submitting them to judicial oversight
(supra para. 100). In this chapter, we must establish whether during the period
when both Gómez Paquiyauri brothers were detained under police custody, before
their lifeless bodies were received at the San Juan Hospital, their right to humane
treatment -set forth in Article 5 of the American Convention and in Articles 1, 6 and 9
of the Inter-American Convention against Torture- was violated.
107. In the instant case, the State expressed that it “condemns all types of
aggression within its territory against citizens’ right to humane treatment, and
therefore in the case of the Gómez Paquiyauri brothers, the Peruvian courts have
punished those responsible of said crime, through due process.”90
108. On other occasions, this Court has established that a “person who is
unlawfully detained is in an exacerbated situation of vulnerability creating a real risk
that his other rights, such as the right to humane treatment and to be treated with
dignity, will be violated.”91 Likewise, this Court has pointed out that even if the
unlawful detention has only lasted a short time, it is sufficient to constitute a
violation of physical and moral integrity according to the standards of international
human rights law,92 and that, in the presence of these circumstances, it is possible to
infer, even when there is no other evidence in this respect, that the treatment
90
Reply of the State to the application de the Inter-American Commission and to the written brief
containing pleadings, motions, and evidence filed by the representative of the alleged victims and their
next of kin (file on the merits and possible reparations, volume II, leaf 254).
91
See Case of Maritza Urrutia, supra note 5, para. 87; Case of Juan Humberto Sánchez, supra note
15, para. 96; Case of Bámaca Velásquez, supra note 68, para. 150; and Case of Cantoral Benavides,
supra note 26, para. 90.
92
See Case of Maritza Urrutia, supra note 5, para. 87; Case of Juan Humberto Sánchez, supra note
15, para. 98; Case of Bámaca Velásquez, supra note 68, para. 128; and Case of Cantoral Benavides,
supra note 26, paras. 82 and 83.
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