63
202. The State reaffirmed its commitment to make progress on this point and cited the efforts made
to develop capacity in aspects of forensic, anthropological and genetic investigation, in the context of
compliance with the judgment in the Case of the Massacres of El Mozote and nearby places.
Considerations of the Court
203. In the seventh operative paragraph of the judgment in the Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters,
issued in March 2005, the Court ordered the State to adopt “all necessary measures to create a
genetic information system that allows genetic data that can contribute to determining and clarifying
the relationships and identification of the disappeared children and their next of kin to be obtained
and conserved.”301 Through its monitoring compliance procedure, the Court notes that, more than
nine years after that measure was decreed, it has still not been implemented, since “it has not been
created yet and no specific actions have been taken toward its implementation.”302 In this case, the
State did not provide information to indicate any progress regarding the above ruling.
204. The Court does not consider it pertinent to order again the measures of reparation requested,
since these were established in the judgment mentioned in the preceding paragraph and compliance
with these continues to be evaluated in the monitoring compliance with judgment stage. Nevertheless,
the Court reiterates the importance of complying with this measure to ensure that the victims can be
identified and their relationship determined. Furthermore, given that the next of kin of those who
were children at the time of the events are of an advanced age, it is urgent to collect and preserve
genetic samples in order to be able to carry out the identification of the disappeared children in future.
205. That said, regarding the request that this system include physical and spoken (identikit)
portraits with age progression techniques, the Court understands that requiring the State to adopt
“all measures necessary” for the creation of a genetic information system would entail the obligation
to adopt best practices to achieve that objective. Therefore, it is not pertinent to order a subsequent
or additional measure.
4.
Guarantee access to military files containing information useful for the determination
of the whereabouts of the disappeared children
206. Alluding to the measure of reparation ordered in the tenth operative paragraph in the Case of
Contreras et al, the representatives indicated that, in this case, public institutions such as the armed
forces should make available all documentation that could provide information to aid the search for
children and that the State should be required to order institutional and administrative efforts to
overcome the obstacles faced in obtaining useful information for the investigation. They also
considered that “it is important that the State require soldiers involved in the military operations to
provide information, given that many of them have relevant information that has not been provided.”
Therefore, the representatives asked the Court that, “given the impunity faced in this case, as in other
cases of child victims of forced disappearance,” to order the State to make available to the public all
documentation containing essential information for the localization of the victims in this case and of
all the children who remain disappeared.
207. The State acknowledged that “access to information in these types of archives is a right of the
victims and their representatives.” The State also recalled that El Salvador’s legal system establishes
provisions requiring the public authorities, without exception, to provide information on cases such as
301
Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador. Merits, reparations and costs, supra, seventh operative paragraph.
Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador. Monitoring compliance with judgment. Order of the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights of February 3, 2010, paragraphs 30 and 31.
302