23
the proceedings, the representatives may argue violations of the Convention other than
those alleged by the Commission, as long as such legal arguments are based upon the facts
set out in the application.80 Moreover, this Tribunal highlights the fact that the State was
given due opportunity to answer all legal arguments put forward by the representatives at
all stages of the proceedings.
84.
The State argued that it had reserved the right to use hanging as a method of
execution in its reservation to the American Convention, and, alternatively, that issues
related to hanging are no longer relevant and are moot, as none of the alleged victims will
be hanged.81 Furthermore, the State argued that the medical evidence submitted by the
representatives with regard to the judicial hangings “should be given little weight” by the
Court, as it is “primarily anecdotal and by its own admission is highly subjective in nature.
Further, even if taken at face value, this medical evidence does not support the view that
hanging is a cruel and inhuman form of execution.”
85.
The Court has already declared that the mandatory imposition of the sentence of
death violated the alleged victims’ right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life (supra, para.
62). This conclusion is not affected by the particular method of execution by which the
death penalty may be carried out. Thus, the Court does not find it necessary to address
whether the particular method of execution by hanging would also be in violation of the
American Convention.
B.
Conditions of Detention
86.
The Commission alleged that the prison conditions in which the State has detained
the alleged victims “must simply be characterized as inhuman”, and thus constitute a
violation of Article 5(1) and 5(2) of the Convention. The representatives similarly argued
that “the conditions in which the alleged victims have been and continue to be detained, in
particular in relation to the lack of privacy, being kept in cages, the lack of contact with the
outside world, use of the slop buckets, and the lack of natural light and exercise, constitute
inhuman and degrading treatment and fail to respect the human dignity of the person and
so are contrary to Article 5 of the [American Convention]”.
87.
The State affirmed that “its prison system fully respects the rights of those
imprisoned to live in conditions of detention compatible with their personal dignity.”
Furthermore, it considered that even if conditions at Glendairy and Harrison’s Point were
imperfect, they “did not fall below or violate international legal standards, within or outside
the hemisphere”. Finally, Barbados stated that it “upholds the standards of the UN Standard
Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners to the maximum extent permitted by its level
of economic development”.
88.
The Court has previously examined in other cases the obligation that States Parties
to the Convention have, as guarantors of the rights of people under their custody, to
provide adequate prison conditions in accordance with Article 5 of the Convention and as
80
Cf. Case of the Five Pensioners. Reparations and Costs. Judgment of February 28, 2003. Series C No. 98,
para. 155; Case of Escué Zapata, supra note 51, para. 92, and Case of Bueno Alves V. Argentina. Merits,
Reparations and Costs. Judgment of May 11, 2007. Series C No. 164, para. 121.
81
The State’s arguments regarding the effects of its reservation to the Convention, as well as the alleged
mootness of the issue of hanging, have been addressed by the Court in chapter III of this Judgment (supra, para.
17). The Court hereby reiterates that the State’s reservation was not specifically intended to exclude the issue of
execution by hanging from the Court’s jurisdiction, and that the alleged violation of Article 5 of the Convention in
this context would have occurred, not only at the moment of execution, but also at the moment of the reading of
the warrants of execution.
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