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medical staff to care for the children and did not provide proper medical care
to those inmates with psychiatric disorders and addictions;
f)
the State failed to guarantee the children’s right to play and leisure, as
the inmates were shut in for most of the day and were permitted to leave
their cells for only around two hours every day;
g)
confinement in small, overcrowded cells for 22 hours a day is a
violation of Article 19 of the American Convention and of subparagraphs 1, 2
and 6 of Article 5 thereof; and
h)
the State also failed to ensure the right to education, as the children
never had a formal program of continuing formal education and the physical
structure of the premises was not suitable for teaching. Subsequent to the
fires, the State did very little to implement educational programs and provide
space for the children to play; what little was done was in response to
repeated requests from the Commission.
136. As for the violation of Article 4 of the American Convention, in relation to
Article 1(1) thereof, the Commission asserted that:
a)
both Articles impose upon the State the reasonable obligation to
prevent violation of the rights to life of persons deprived of their liberty. This
obligation is all the more compelling in cases where the alleged victims are
children deprived of their freedom, as their situation is one of vulnerability
and dependence upon the State;
b)
the State failed to comply with its obligation to respect and ensure the
right to life of the nine inmates who died in or as a result of fires at the
Center, and the right to life of Benito Augusto Adorno, who was shot and died
as a result;
c)
two adolescents, Richard Daniel Martínez and Héctor Ramón Vázquez,
died after being transferred to the Emboscada Regional Penitentiary for
adults;
d)
the unjustifiable absence of even the most rudimentary fire prevention
and extinction devices and the authorities’ disregard of the security staff’s
warnings about the imminent danger, meant that the victims’ deaths were not
fortuitous; instead, they were foreseeable and preventable; the State has
incurred international responsibility because of this negligence; and
e)
the State incurred international responsibility for violating the right to
life because it did not take the necessary measures to prevent the fires or so
that they would not be as disastrous as they were, quite apart from any
intentional or criminal responsibility of the prison guards or certain inmates
who may have started the first fire, which are questions the Paraguayan
courts have to determine.
137. As for the violation of Article 5 of the American Convention, in relation to
Article 1(1) thereof, the Commission asserted that:
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