73
disappearance of children in El Salvador, as well as the progress made toward complying
with them. In addition, it stated that it would produce a video on the life and legacy of the
priest Father Jon Cortina S.J., and the work of the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas
Desaparecidos.
210. The Court assesses positively the State’s willingness to comply with the reparations
requested by the representatives under this aspect of the judgment. Given the
circumstances of this case, the Court considers it important to prepare an audiovisual
documentary on the forced disappearance of children during the armed conflict in El
Salvador that makes specific mention of this case and that includes the work done by the
Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niños y Niñas Desaparecidos, the content of which must be
agreed on previously with the victims and their representatives. The State must assume the
expenses arising from the production and distribution of this video. The Court considers that
the video must be distributed as widely as possible among the victims, their representatives,
and the country’s schools and universities, for its subsequent promotion and dissemination,
with the ultimate purpose of informing Salvadoran society about these facts. The video must
be transmitted at least once during prime time on a national channel, and placed on the web
page of the search for disappeared children ordered by the Court in the case of the Serrano
Cruz Sisters. The State has two years from notification of this judgment to carry out these
measures.
D.
Guarantees of non-repetition
1.
Public access to State archives
211. The Commission indicated the need to open the military archives and that the State
“establish the necessary conditions for these archives to be made available to all the
investigators and all the committees and all the prosecutors working on this case.” The
representatives asked the Court to order the State to “make the military archives from the
period of internal conflict public” and to ensure that the information “is adequately
safeguarded and protected.” To this end, the State must “make all the necessary financial,
human and technical resources available to the entity designated as custodian so that it can
carry out the work of classifying and safeguarding the documentation.” The State reported
on the entry into force of the Law on Access to Public Information on April 8, 2011, which
“will provide an internal mechanism for accessing information on government activities
allegedly related to the disappearance of children during the internal armed conflict.” It also
provides for “the creation of Access to Public Information Units” and “the creation of an
Institute for Access to Public Information,” with its own legal personality and funding, which
will be responsible for overseeing the application of the law. In addition, the State advised
that the law includes “a control mechanism, if no response is received to a request for
information.”
212. The Court assesses positively the initiative taken by El Salvador to allow access to
information related to government activities allegedly related to the disappearance of
children during the internal armed conflict. In particular, with regard to the control
mechanism if no response is received to a request for information. Although there is no
indication that this law was applied in this case with regard to the victims, the Court has
observed that one of the constraints to progress in the investigations is the lack of access to
the information contained in the archives on the counterinsurgency operations and on the
individuals, and military units and ranks that took part in the operations in which the victims
in this case were disappeared, including their rank, functions and responsibilities. Since this
information is of vital importance for advancing judicial investigations and the investigations
of the Public Prosecution Service, as well as for making it possible to identify and to
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents