48 170. Consequently, the Court will analyze the existence of this systematic practice of violations against children, and its relevance in this concrete case. In this regard, several reports analyzing the internal conflict in Guatemala171 indicate that apart from the existence of a context of violence in which children were particularly affected, there was also a pattern of separation of children from their families and abduction and illegal retention of these children. In many cases this practice included changing their name and denying them their identity, and in some cases these abductions and illegal retentions were perpetrated by the same soldiers who participated in the massacres.172 171. that: In this regard, the report by the CEH, Guatemala: Memory of Silence indicated [a]fter the massacres or scorched earth operations, many children who could already fend for themselves were taken by the soldiers, commissioned soldiers, or patrol members to subject them to a servile condition in their houses or those of other families. Some of these children were subjected to situations of exploitation and systematic abuse […] According to the testimonies received by the CEH, children had to perform domestic work or several tasks ordered to them in the houses where they were located. They suffered all types of physical and psychological mistreatment. These children suffered, along with the infringement of their right to individual liberty, the breach of all of their human rights, given that the conditions of servitude to which they were submitted to also affected their physical and psychological integrity, and kept them in a situation of economic exploitation, abuse, and permanent fear. Additionally, their right to an identity was breached, as well as their right to grow within their own family and community. In some cases their names were changed, and they were denied the origin of their families, or this origin was stigmatized173. 172. The report Guatemala Never Again of the Project for the Recovery of the Historical Memory of the Office of Human Rights of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (hereinafter “REMHI, Guatemala Never Again”) indicated that “[t]here are some cases of children who were separated from their families or communities, kidnapped and adopted in a fraudulent manner by those who victimized their families. This practice has condemned them to live with their families’ assassins.” 174 173. The same report cites declarations by General Héctor Gramajo175 published in the Guatemalan newspaper “Prensa Libre” on April 6, 1989, according to which, when he was Secretary of Defense, this practice was frequent at some times, affecting a 171 Cf. CEH, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, supra note 6, Volume V, Conclusions and Recommendation (Appendixes to the brief of pleadings and arguments, appendix 33, f. 10933) and Volume III, Book 3, “Violence against Children”, pp. 71 and 72; Office of Human Rights of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG), Guatemala Never Again, Report of the REMHI Project, published in 1998 (Appendixes to the brief of pleadings and motions, appendix 32, Volume 1, fs. 10019 and 10020); ODHAG, “Hasta Encontrarte: Niñez Desaparecida por el Conflicto Armado Interno en Guatemala” (Until I find you: Children Disappeared in the Internal Armed Conflict in Guatemala), 2000 (Appendixes to the brief of pleadings and motions, appendix 36, fs. 10995 to 11156); CIDH, Fifth Report on the Human Rights Situation in Guatemala, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.111, Chapter XII, “Rights of the Child”. Section C, approved on April 6, 2001, para. 27 and 28. Available at http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Guatemala01sp/indice.htm; CIDH, Justice and Social Inclusion: The Challenges to Democracy in Guatemala, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.118, Doc. 5 rev. 1, December 29, 2003, para. 377 and 378. Available at http://www.cidh.org/countryrep/Guatemala2003sp/indice.htm, and expert opinion of Marco Antonio Garavito Fernández rendered on June 8, 2009 before a public notery (file on preliminary objections, and possible merits, reparations, and costs, Volume IV, f. 604). 172 Cf. Expert opinion of witness Marco Antonio Garavito Fernández, supra note 171, f. 604; ODHAG, REMHI, Guatemala Never Again, supra note 171, fs. 10019 and 10020; ODHAG, Hasta Encontrarte, supra note 171, f. 11063). 173 CEH, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, supra note 6, Volume III, Violence against children, p. 71 and 72. 174 175 REMHI, Guatemala Never Again, supra note 171, f. 10020. General Héctor Gramajo was Secretary of Defense during the Government of Vinicio Cerezo Arévalo from 1985 to 1990.