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favor of each of the next of kin considered victims in the present Judgment
(supra para. 251). The compensation offered in the present Judgment, shall not
pose an obstacle to the other reparations that, eventually, could be issued in the
domestic law.
2. Non-pecuniary damage
305. The Court has developed in its jurisprudence the concept of non-pecuniary
damage and the assumptions under which it must be compensated. The Court
has established that non-pecuniary damage consists of “the suffering and the
harm caused to the direct victims and their relatives, the erosion of values of
great significance to people, as well as the alterations of a non-pecuniary nature,
in the living conditions of the victim or the victim’s family.”401
306. The Commission requested the Court to, heading to the nature of this
case, establish a sum in equity for the compensation of non-pecuniary damage.
307. The representatives noted that moral damage should be subject to an
established monetary compensation based on standards of equity. The victims
were detained without legal formalities or judicial controls; they were taken to
military bases were they were tortured and then disappeared, to which they
requested that for each disappeared person and for Maria Lúcia Petit da Silva,
based on moral damage, the Court establish a sum of US $100,000.00 (one
hundred thousand dollars of the United States of America). On the other hand,
regarding the next of kin of the victims, they considered that the enforced
disappearances generated anguish, insecurity, frustration, and defenselessness,
given the omission of the public authorities to investigate the facts. As such, they
requested that in establishing the sum for compensation, the Court consider
factors such as the type of crime, the failure to identify those responsible, and
the impact on the life plan and physical and mental health of the next of kin of
the victims, such as the following circumstances: a) lack of knowledge regarding
the whereabouts of the victims; b) recognition of responsibility by the State more
than 20 years after the facts took place; c) the impossibility of accessing justice
and the lack of information; d) the denial of justice for more than 30 years; e)
the public declarations of soldiers affirming that they had tortured and executed
the victims without there being any further investigation, and f) the declarations
against the honor of the disappeared victims. As a consequence, they requested
US $80,000.00 (eighty thousand dollars of the United States of America) for each
of the next of kin of the victims.
308. The State highlighted that, in addition to the payment of pecuniary
compensation in the framework of Law No. 9.140/95, several acts of a symbolic
and educational nature were carried out, which promoted the recovery of
memory and the truth of the facts that occurred during the military regime.
309. The Court has held that the monetary reparations ordered in the domestic
forum “of a reparative purpose” for the enforced disappearances are appropriate
in the present case. As such, it will not order the payment of additional sums for
the concept of non-pecuniary damage suffered by the victims of enforced
disappearance.
310. On the other hand, in regard to non-pecuniary damage suffered by the
next of kin of the disappeared victims, the Court recalls that international
401
Case of the “Street Children” (Villagrán-Morales et al.) v. Guatemala. Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of May 26, 2001. Series C No. 77, para. 84; Case of Rosendo Cantú et al., supra note 45,
para. 275, and Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña, supra note 24, para. 278.
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