that, in 2011, the Solidarity Scholarship Program had been created under the Ministry of
Education, and it grants scholarships to mid-level students at public schools through “study
grants.” The State indicated that “[b]ased on the above, the criteria to determine the
number, duration, place, and conditions of the study grants will be subject to the indications
noted and pertinent regulations.”
217. Subsequently, in the agreement on reparations, the State indicated that “[t]he
Executive undertakes to approve [these] study grants […] and, in addition, to allocate the
necessary funds for the family [of Edgar Fernando García] to be able to designate and
deliver them as of the 2013 school year.”
218. The Court assesses the State’s undertaking positively and therefore endorses this
measure of reparation, in light of the provisions established by the parties in the reparations
agreement. Thus, the State must deliver, once, the ten “study grants” of Q. 25,000.00
(twenty-five thousand quetzals) each, to be implemented as of the 2013 school year.
Meanwhile, the members of Edgar Fernando García’s family must, within six months of
notification of this Judgment, name those will be the beneficiaries of these “study grants,”
who must be children or grandchildren of persons who were forcibly disappearances, in the
terms of the reparations agreement.
C.3) Guarantee of non-repetition: National Commission for the Search for
Victims of Forced Disappearances and other Forms of Disappearances
219. The representatives asked that the State, “through the corresponding body, urgently
approve the Law on the National Commission for the Search for Victims of Forced
Disappearance and other Forms of Disappearance, with the original text submitted by the
civil society organizations on December 14, 2006, accepting only changes that benefit the
victims of human rights violations during the internal armed conflict.” 291 For its part, in the
answering brief, the State expressed its willingness ”to follow up on and to foster the
approval of bill [3590 on the creation of the National Commission for the Search for Victims
of Forced Disappearance and other Forms of Disappearance] by the Congress of the
Republic of Guatemala.” In addition, it advised that this bill “has the support of the Finance
and Currency Committee of the Congress of the Republic, and […] of the Legislation and
Constitutional Matters Committee, and has thus completed the legislative procedure in order
to be examined in […] plenary.” Consequently, it asked the Court to “recommend to the
Guatemalan legislature that it examine and approve [the said] law promptly […] in order to
support the families of victims of forced disappearance in Guatemala.”
220. In the reparations agreement, the State undertook “to continue promoting the
approval of the Law [for the creation of the National Commission for the Search for Victims
of Forced Disappearance and other Forms of Disappearance].” It also indicated that “the
President of the Republic, as head of the Executive and representative of national unity,
undertakes to request the Legislature, with full respect for the separation of powers, to
approve the said law.”
221. The Court considers that an entity of this type will make a beneficial contribution to
the search for and identification of Edgar Fernando García and, in general, of the victims of
291
The representatives indicated that they support this bill, the purpose of which is “to provide to the next of
kin of the disappeared persons with an effective answer concerning the fate of their […] relatives.” Regarding the
processing of this law, they advised that it had received “two positive opinions,” from the congressional committees
on Public Finance and Currency, and on Legislation and Constitutional Matters. However, the original text of the bill
presented by the victims’ social organizations has been modified in these opinions.
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