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5. Provide mechanisms to prevent repetition, including: i) training programs on
international human rights standards in general, and with respect to children and
adolescents, directed to the Aragua State Police; ii) measures to ensure effective
accountability in the criminal, disciplinary, and administrative sphere, in cases of alleged
abuse of power by State agents responsible for public security; and iii) legislative,
administrative, and other types of measures for investigating with due diligence and in
accordance with relevant international standards the need for and proportionality of the
lethal use of force by police officers, to ensure the existence of effective protocols so that
adequate control and accountability mechanisms can be implemented in response to the
actions of such officers.
Additionally, the Commission considers that the case deals with issues of interAmerican public order.
First of all, the facts of the present case are part of a broader context of
extrajudicial executions in Venezuela. The Commission has closely monitored this
situation through different mechanisms. In particular, the Commission has addressed
this problem since its report on the Situation of Human Rights in Venezuela of 2003. It
also referred to this problem in its annual reports of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008,
as well as in its recent report on Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela of 2009.
The Commission considers to be necessary to include in the analysis of the present
case, an especial consideration to the characteristics of this serious context in
Venezuela, in the terms described in the merits' report.
In addition to developing its jurisprudence on extrajudicial executions, this case
also will allow the Court to study in depth the rights of the adolescents, especially the
special measurements of protection that must be adopted from the moment itself which
a adolescent go into state custody after a deprivation of freedom, to protect their
personal safety from a situation of double vulnerability like the existing one in this case.
In this regards, the Court will be able to analyze in a qualified way some of the
implications of the guarantees contemplated in the American Convention, developing
standards that will impact in the state obligations in this matter.
Additionally, and in accordance with article 35.1 f) of the Rules of Procedures,
the Commission offers the following expert declarations in connection with the interAmerican public interest issues related to this case:
a) Expert whose name shall be informed promptly, who will testify on the state
obligations to address general contexts of extrajudicial executions, from a holistic
perspective that includes both the act of security officials directly involved, and the
research and institutional response that must be given to address the different elements
that favor the existence and permanence of problems of this nature. The expert will also
make references to the non-repetition measures considered appropriate in situations
such as the present case.
b) Camaño Diego, who will declare on the state obligations regarding personal
freedom when it comes to adolescents. Specifically, the expert will analyze the special
obligations of the different part of Article 7 of the Convention applicable to this case,
when it comes to teenagers immediately after the initial arrest.
The curricula vitae of the experts proposed by the Inter-American Commission
are attached to the Merits Report 58/12.