of dwindling or non-recognition of human dignity, the basis for human rights, constitutes a form of cruel treatment, since it implies partial or total nonrecognition of a person’s human condition. Every person evidently suffers when they are deprived in any way of any of the prerogatives or rights that must always be acknowledged by all. Any form of dwindling of what it means to be a person necessarily leads to the violation of humane treatment, since the individual will no longer continue to be a whole. 7. During the deliberation of this case and when voting the corresponding judgment, the Court lost a valuable opportunity to consider possible violations to Article 5 of the Convention and, specifically psychic and moral integrity, to determine the differences between the violation to humane treatment and the type of evidence required for its determination regarding violations to psychic and moral integrity. And, in the event of these last two types of violation, when should psychic and moral damages be presumed. 8. This will probably be a recurring matter in future cases submitted to the consideration of the Court, due to the conditions of the region’s prisons, a public and notorious fact, as well as the many violations to personal liberty reported in Latin America. The effects of an arbitrary arrest and imprisonment on a human being, as well as the resulting psychic and moral damage and its possible presumption by the Tribunal in certain cases, is a matter that the Court must deal with hopefully sooner than later. And I hope it does. Manuel E. Ventura Robles Judge Pablo Saavedra Alessandri Secretary