13. The petitioner alleged that in the petition that reported the case to the competent
authorities, she requested that the Civilian Police initiate an inquiry, and that the Federal Public
Ministry initiate an administrative proceeding. 3 She referred to several statements made by
victims of said Casa de Repouso, 4 and she attached the Report prepared by the Group for
Monitoring and Evaluation of Hospital Psychiatric Care –GAPH-CE 5 (Grupo de Acompanhamento
e Avaliação da Assistência Psiquiátrica Hospitalar)– when it visited the Casa de Repouso
Guararapes at the request of the Commission on Human and Citizen Rights of the Legislative
Assembly of Ceará, after the complaint lodged by the petitioner with that Commission, and,
notwithstanding that initiative, according to the petitioner, the case was not duly investigated,
no action was filed, the Casa de Repouso continued operating, and the guilty persons
continued to go unpunished.
14. The Group for Monitoring and Evaluation of Hospital Psychiatric Care – GAPH-CE, when
visiting the Casa de Repouso in November 1999, just after the incident alleged here, collected
information on the reports of the death of Damião Ximenes. In that respect, they concluded as
follows:
The “Damião Case” evidences the precarious medical care, abusive treatment, various
shortcomings listed in this report, which should be denounced to the various councils
related to psychiatric care, and to the Public Ministry, for it to take the appropriate
measures.
15. The report by the group of specialists in psychiatry and signed by Dr. Raimundo Alonso
Batista de Aquino, Coordinator of Mental Health Care for the state of Ceará, concluded what
was explained by the petitioner, i.e. that said Casa de Repouso was inadequate for the
purposes to which it was earmarked:
The clinic does not have the conditions for operating, based on all the comments referred
to above. Based on its strategic location, we suggest it be intervened, or that a similar
measure be adopted, changing its management or having its license stripped by the
Single Health System. Measures to be adopted by the municipal government of Sobral or
in conjunction with the SESA.
16. Even though the petitioner had demonstrated the existence of a police inquiry and an
administrative proceeding, there is nothing in the record about what happened in these
procedures. Furthermore, the State has not provided the Commission any information as to
the development and results of those procedures.
17. The petitioner alleged that the State is not fulfilling its obligation to carry out the judicial
investigation in order to determine the responsibility for her brother’s death, and she alleged
State responsibility, as the State allowed and allows –as it continues to operate– the operation
of said Casa de Repouso, which, through its staff of physicians, nurses, and monitors,
dispenses cruel and inhuman treatment to its patients, treatment that caused the death of her
brother Damião Ximenes Lopes.
B.
The State’s position
18. The Commission, as per its Regulations, notified the Brazilian State, asking that it provide
any information it deemed pertinent to the complaint; it then did so again on three more
occasions. Nonetheless, the State let the time periods run, and as of the analysis of this
Report, it did not present any response to the facts alleged by the petitioner, nor did it call into
question the admissibility of the petition that is the subject of this Report.
IV.
ANALYSIS OF ADMISSIBILITY
A.
Competence of the Commission ratione personae, ratione materiae, ratione
temporis, and ratione loci
3 Administrative Proceeding no. 08105.001068/99-62.
4 Statements made in Inquiry no. 404/99.
5 Report dated December 2, 1999.
3