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compensation granted by the PNR “does not constitute fair and decent compensation for the
moral damage” caused to their communities. In their observations on the preliminary objections,
they stated that: i) “the program has set a maximum amount to compensate victims, regardless
of the number of victims that a family has lost and reported”, and ii) the program “does not
compensate all victims for each of the violations contemplated in Article 3 of Governmental
Agreement 43-2005 43-2005. Violations such as forced displacement and deaths from disease,
hunger and the subhuman conditions endured during the forced displacement in the mountains
and elsewhere are also not compensated.” Thus, they asked the Court to determine that the PRN
“does not meet accepted international standards of reparation.” In the public hearing they alleged
that the PNR “has not been effective and has not provided comprehensive, transformative and
satisfactory reparations to the victims and the communities.” They also pointed out that at the
end of March 2016 the PRN office in the municipality of Rabinal closed and they “do not know
why.”
278. The Commission indicated that it did not have specific information regarding the
reparations granted by the PRN and the totality of the facts and violations declared in the present
case. In its final written arguments, it recognized and appreciated the administrative reparation
programs established by the States for serious human rights violations. However, it argued that
they cannot replace the reparations to be ordered by the Court in the framework of an individual
case, due to the fact that: i) the victims in the case have gone through domestic judicial
proceedings to reach the inter-American system and are currently awaiting a decision, also
judicial, in which the Court establishes the violations committed to their detriment and directly
decides on the reparations due to them, without the need for further proceedings to prove their
status as victims before the State authorities; ii) the reparations ordered by the Court in the
international sphere have specific content and scope that are determined by the Court according
to the specific circumstances of the case; iii) by virtue of the independent nature of international
reparations, it is not up to the bodies of the inter-American system to subject such reparations
for a victim of a violation of his or her conventional rights to the State’s domestic instruments,
which may suffer from defects, imperfections or insufficiencies; and iv) the PRN has serious
shortcomings in its implementation.
279. The Court appreciates and recognizes the actions undertaken by the State through the
National Reparations Program (PNR) to redress the human rights violations perpetrated in the
context of the internal armed conflict in Guatemala. However, in the instant case, it does not
appear from the evidence provided by the State that the persons compensated through the PNR
have “agreed not to file any other claim against the State in the future” for the facts of the case,
as alleged by Guatemala. On the contrary, the agreements and settlements on “Payment of
Financial Compensation” expressly indicate that the persons compensated retain the right to be
beneficiaries of other measures granted by the PNR “that complete the integral compensation” 332
and/or “to appear before the competent jurisdictional bodies to pursue the legal proceedings
arising from the human rights violations suffered by the aforementioned victim.” 333
payment and who does not, which generates internal conflict among family groups; that sons and daughters whose
fathers or mothers suffered violations are excluded as beneficiaries; that the fact that PAC members received payment
for their services –often of a criminal nature – before the victims were compensated, caused annoyance, “wounds and
divisions” in the affected communities; that victims of serious human rights violations were excluded from the program
for having belonged to the PAC, despite the fact that in many cases membership in the PAC was mandatory; that the
“improved houses” that began to be built in 2010 are not culturally appropriate; that the materials for their construction
were delivered on the road closest to the communities, which entailed transportation costs, and that some families have
the material, already deteriorated, without having built their homes because these households are comprised of women
and elderly people.
332
Agreements and settlements on “Payment of financial compensation” (evidence file folios 10194 and 10198, etc.).
These settlements state that the persons receiving payments release the PNR and the State from all liability for any
claims that may be brought by other persons with equal or greater right to be beneficiaries, which is not equivalent to
releasing the State from all liability for the facts of the case.
333
Agreements and settlements of “Payment of financial compensation” (evidence file folios, 10224 and 10588, etc.).