35
active measures to reverse the effects of their weak, vulnerable, and defenseless status,
including vis-à-vis acts and practices of individual third parties. 140
133. In this connection, the Commission considers that forced displacement cannot be
taken in isolation from other violations, given its complexity and the “broad range of human rights
affected or endangered by it, and bearing in mind said circumstances of special weakness,
vulnerability, and defenselessness in which the displaced population generally finds itself, as
subjects of human rights.” 141
134.
In the same vein, with regard to forced displacement, the Court has found,
The circumstances of the instant case and the special and complex situation of vulnerability
that affects said persons include but also transcend the content of the protection that the
States must provide in the framework of Article 22 of the Convention. Displacement [...]
originates in the lack of protection during the massacre and reveals its effects in the violations
of their right to humane treatment [...] and in the consequences of non-fulfillment of the duty
to investigate the facts, which have led to partial impunity [...]. [B]eyond the provisions of
Article 22 of the Convention, the situation of displacement addressed here has also affected
the right of [...] the victims to a decent life, in connection with non-fulfillment of the
obligations to respect and to guarantee the rights embodied in those provisions. 142
135. Concretely, the Commission takes it as proven that following the bombing of
December 13 and as a consequence of the terror that it inspired in the population, the attacks
against the survivors who tried to escape, and the destruction of their homes, every inhabitant of
Santo Domingo abandoned the village. Specifically, as was mentioned in the section on established
facts, at an open town meeting held in the municipality of Tame on December 17, 1998, the
inhabitants of Santo Domingo publicly denounced the crimes and said that owing to the continuous
bombardment on December 13 and 14, 1998, the inhabitants of the village moved to the district of
Betoyes in the Municipality of Tame, and to the cities of Tame and Saravena. According to publicly
known information, the inhabitants returned to the village in January 1999, whereupon they set
about its reconstruction. 143
136. The Commission finds that the plight of these people belongs in the category of
forced displacement and since it came about as a direct consequence of the bombing perpetrated by
the security forces, the State is responsible for violation of the right enshrined in Article 22(1) of the
American Convention, in connection with the obligations set forth in Article 1(1) thereof, to the
detriment of Marcos Neite (5), Erinson Olimpo Cárdenas (9), Hilda Yuraime Barranco (14), Ricardo
Ramírez (11), Yeimi Viviana Contreras (17), Maryori Agudelo Flórez (17), Rosmira Daza Rojas (17)
Neftalí Neite (17), Alba Yaneth García, Fernando Vanegas, Milciades Bonilla Ostos, Ludwing
Vanegas, Xiomara García Guevara, Mario Galvis, Fredy Monoga Villamizar (or Fredy Villamizar
Monoga), Mónica Bello Tilano, Maribel Daza, Amalio Neite González, Marian Arévalo, José Agudelo
140
I/A Court H.R, Case of Chitay-Nech et al. v. Guatemala. Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs.
Judgment of May 25, 2010, par. 141.
I/A Court H.R., Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre” v. Colombia. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of
September 15, 2005. Series C, No. 134, par. 177.
141
142
I/A Court H.R., Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre” v. Colombia. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of
September 15, 2005. Series C, No. 134, par. 186; I/A Court H.R., Case of the Yakye Axa Indigenous Community v.
Paraguay. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of June 17, 2005. Series C, No. 125, pars. 162 and 163; and I/A Court
H.R., Case of the “Juvenile Reeducation Institute” v. Paraguay. Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs
Judgment of September 2, 2004. Series C, No. 112, par. 164; and The “Street Children” Case (Villagrán Morales et al.), par.
191.
143
Annex 13. Equipo Nizkor, Support Group for Displaced People Organizations, Report on Forced Displacement in
Colombia, 1999, March 2000. Available at: http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/doc/gad1e.html#N_26.