35 upon imposing punishment on conscripts, and accidents associated with the characteristics of compulsory military service. 131. Moreover, conscripts in the Paraguayan Armed Forces have been subject to physical and psychological punishment, and over demanding physical exercises which, in many instances, led to adverse physical and psychological consequences. These techniques are used to inspire respect for the orders of officers in command and to punish acts of disobedience and inappropriate fulfillment of said orders.64 132. In that respect, the expert witness Juan Carlos Yuste-Alonso stated that punishment and acts of violence against soldier children are widely accepted and justified in the Paraguayan military environment (supra para. 69.B0.4). Furthermore, since 1989, out of 110 registered cases of dead conscripts, only in one case the perpetrator was punished (supra para. 69.B0.4). 133. On June 18, 1997, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made its concluding observations on the situation of children in Paraguay and pointed out that, despite the legal restrictions imposed upon the recruitment of minors under the age of 18, “it is concerned that in practice this policy is not always enforced and that there are still under-age juveniles coerced or pressured into military service.” Therefore, the Committee on the Rights of the Child encouraged the State party to enforce rigorously legislation in force.65 The international body addressed the subject again in 2001, and recommended that Paraguay “put an end to the practice of recruiting children into the Paraguayan Armed Forces and national police.” 66 134. In that respect, the Court considers that the recent statement made by the President of Paraguay on March 14, 2006, regarding the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in relation to the involvement of children in armed conflict, which sets forth that minors under the age of 18 cannot be recruited into military service, constitutes a positive step to prevent events such as those occurred in the instant case from happening again. X REPARATIONS APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 63(1) OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION OBLIGATION TO MAKE REPARATIONS Arguments of the Commission 135. The Commission stated that: 64 Amnesty International, Paraguay, Military Service: Recruitment of Children, Routine Ill-treatment and Unexplained Deaths, April 5, 2001, AI INDEX: AMR 45/002/2001. 65 UN, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Paraguay, June 18, 1997, CRC/C/15/Add.75, para. 17 and 36. 66 UN, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Paraguay, November 06, 2001, CRC/C/15/Add.166, para. 46(a).