2.
Non-pecuniary damages
295. The Commission requested that the Court establish in equity the amount of
compensation corresponding to the non-pecuniary damage caused.
296.
The representatives requested that the Court order the State to pay “pecuniary
compensation” to repair the “suffering and afflictions caused by the violation of [Ms.
Atala´s] fundamental rights,” the “obvious detriment to her life plan,” and the “mother and
daughters’ painful separation and mutual loss.” The representatives’ requested the sum of
$100,000 USD (one hundred thousand dollars of the United States of America) in
compensation for non-pecuniary damages, for each of the victims.
297.
The State reiterated the arguments put forward regarding pecuniary damages
(supra para. 288).
298.
The Court notes that in the public hearing Ms. Atala indicated that, during the
disciplinary investigation conducted against her (supra para. 227), she felt “profoundly
humiliated, exposed, as if [she] had been stripped naked and thrown into the public
square.” She also stated that the decision of the Supreme Court of Chile which ruled on the
recurso de queja (remedy of complaint) had a direct impact on her identity as a mother
when it “deprived her of her daughters” for being a lesbian, causing her “humiliation [...] as
a woman,” and stigmatizing her as “incapable” of being a mother and “raising her own
children.” Furthermore, the victim declared that because of these events, her reputation,
professional activities and her social and family relations were all affected. Finally, the
experts who conducted a psychological evaluation of Ms. Atala and her daughters diagnosed
various damages related to the discriminatory acts, as well as impairment of her private and
family life as mentioned in this Judgment.
299.
In this regard, the Court finds that the declared violations gave rise to different
kinds of damage in the victims’ daily lives, different levels of stigma and distress. In view of
the compensation ordered by the Court in other cases, and in consideration of the
circumstances of the present case, the suffering caused to the victims, as well as the
change in their living conditions and other intangible consequences, the Court deems it
appropriate to establish, in equity, the sum of $20,000 USD (twenty thousand dollars of the
United States of America) for Ms. Atala and $10,000 USD (ten thousand dollars of the
United States of America) for each of the girls M., V., and R. as compensation for nonpecuniary damages.
E)
Costs and expenses
300.
As the Court has indicated on previous occasions, costs and expenses are included
in the amount provided for reparations under Article 63.1 of the American Convention303.
301. The Commission requested that the Court “order the State of Chile [to] pay the costs
and expenses that ar[ose] from filing the [...] case, both in the domestic courts and in the
Inter-American Human Rights System.”
303
Cf. Case of Garrido and Baigorria v. Argentina. Reparations and Costs. Judgment of August 27, 1998.
Series C. No. 39, para. 79 and Case of Fontevecchia and D`Amico, supra note 28, para. 124.
84