107
y)
“the vaginal revisions or inspections of the prisoners in the context of
rounds of inspection […] carried out by male hooded police officers, using
force, and without any other purpose than intimidating and abusing them
constitutes flagrant breaches to the inmates’ rights, constituting violence
against women.” Likewise, the vaginal revision practiced on the survivors’
female visitors “in complete absence of regulations, practiced by police, and
not health, personnel, and as a measure of first and not last resource in the
objective of maintaining the prison’s security constituted violence against
women;” and
z)
other forms of sexual violence included threats of sexual acts,
“touching”, sexual insults, forced nudity, beatings on their breasts, between
their legs, and buttocks, beatings to the wombs of pregnant women, and
other humiliating and damaging acts that were a form of sexual aggression.
Arguments of the State
261.
In synthesis, the State argued the following:
a)
in its response to the petition and observations to the brief of
pleadings and motions, it stated that “it accepts the failure to comply with the
general obligation of respect and guarantee of human rights established in
Article 1(1) of the American Convention[, …] it accepts partial responsibility in
the violations to the right […] to humane treatment, as long as the Judicial
Power of Peru does not issue a ruling on the historical and detailed truth of
the events that occurred between May 6 and 9, 1992;”
b)
in its final oral arguments it stated that “the facts […] cannot be
hidden, the pain cannot be hidden, […] those injured cannot be hidden, the
pan of the victims’ next of kin cannot be hidden;”
c)
in its final written arguments it stated that “even though individual
responsibilities will be determined within the Domestic Jurisdiction, in the
terms of the proceedings that are currently being followed before the Judicial
Power […,] the magnitude of the facts to which the present proceedings refer
and the responsibility of the Peruvian State in the same cannot be ignored;”
and
d)
that “it acknowledges its responsibility for the facts that occurred
between May 6 and 9, 1992.”
Considerations of the Court
262.
Article 1(1) of the American Convention states 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.