91 understanding that “this life cannot be part of the moral damage because it is independent of the feelings expressed by the victims.” Therefore, they asked the Court to include as one of the items for compensation the irreparable loss of the life of Juan Humberto Sánchez, providing recognition of its autonomous value and setting an amount in fairness. Pleadings of the Commission 180. The Commission, in turn, asked the Court to order the State: a) the main reparation sought is effective trial and punishment of the instigators and direct perpetrators of the killing of Juan Humberto Sánchez, that is, for the State to be required to adopt such necessary judicial steps as may be necessary to identify and effectively punish those responsible; and b) in this regard, the judges, prosecutors, witnesses, legal operators and the next of kin of the victim in this case must be given sufficient security guarantees. Pleadings of the State 181. With respect to the request for the Court to order the State to adopt measures of reparation that guarantee non-recidivism of the facts, the State affirmed that it has improved all aspects of the penitentiary system, it issued a new organizational law for the Police and a new Criminal Procedures Code. It has also strengthened the Public Prosecutor’s Office and has established Inter-Institutional Criminal Justice Committees, “strictly adhering to the fundamental rights of Man.” 182. As regards the request for the State to modify its domestic legislation, the State pointed out that “the applicants [did not prove] that due legal process does not exist in domestic legislation to protect the right or rights that were allegedly breached.” 183. The State also pointed out that “it [cannot] be forced in abstract to sign treaties or conventions, if the sovereign body, in this case the National Congress of the Republic of Honduras, does not deem it” pertinent. Considerations of the Court 184. States Party to the American Convention have the duty to investigate human rights violations and to punish their perpetrators and those who cover up said violations. Furthermore, every person who considers him or herself to be a victim of said violations and his or her next of kin have the right to resort to the judiciary to attain fulfillment of this duty of the State, for their benefit and that of society as a whole.178 185. At the time of the instant Judgment, after more than ten years, those responsible for the detention, torture, and extra-legal execution of Juan Humberto Sánchez have not yet been identified and punished, for which reason there is a situation of grave impunity regarding the respective facts. This situation constitutes 178 Cf. Las Palmeras Case, Reparations, supra note 4, para. 66; Trujillo Oroza Case, Reparations, supra note 22, para. 99; Bámaca Velásquez Case, Reparations, supra note 153, paras. 76 and 77; and Cantoral Benavides Case, Reparations, supra note 125, paras. 69 and 70.