31.
The Court notes that the representatives and the Commission did not specifically
refer to these comments by the State, since the representatives only referred to the applicable
regulations. According to the information provided, there are doubts as to whether such
statements were indeed rendered before a notary at the prison in which the deponents were
detained. These doubts have not been challenged. Consequently, the Court will not give
probative value to those two pieces of documentary evidence.
32.
At the same time, the State presented certain documentation with its final written
arguments, including laws, rules of procedure, a work report of the Ministry of the Interior
and a national prison reform plan, for the purpose of reporting on the legal reforms and current
regulations of the prison system, as well as providing answers to questions asked by the
Judges during the hearing. The representatives and the Commission had an opportunity to
present their observations on said documents (supra para. 12). With respect to a statement
rendered by an inmate and a photograph of the entrance to the maternal block of the COF,
the Court agrees with the Commission’s29 observation that the State did not justify the
presentation of those documents outside the procedural moment established in the Rules of
Procedure; that is to say, it did not justify them for reasons of force majeure or grave
impediment, and did not refer to any supervening facts, after the date on which the answer
brief was submitted. Therefore, this documentation is inadmissible. As to the rest of the
documents, the Court includes these in the file in application of Article 58 of the Rules of
Procedure, solely as information on current prison regulations in Guatemala and insofar as
they may contribute to explain the State’s position in relation to the Judges’ requests for
information during the hearing.30
33.
For their part, the representatives presented certain documents with their final
written arguments and, in addition, forwarded receipts for expenses incurred in the proceeding
before the Court. The State and the Commission had an opportunity to present their
observations on said information and documentation. As to Annexes I31, III32, IV, V, VI33 and
IX,34 the Court agrees with the State that the representatives did not justify their time-barred
presentation for reasons of force majeure or serious impediment, and therefore these are not
Regarding the statement made by an inmate named Maria Isabel Funes Vincente and the photograph of the
entrance to the maternal block of the COF, presented by the State, the Commission observed that “the State did not
justify any reason of “force majeure” or “grave impediment, or, that these referred to “supervening facts” after the
date on which it forwarded its answer brief”, by which “such evidence is inadmissible.” Regarding the photograph of
the entrance to the maternal block of the COF, the Commission observed that the State did not prove the authenticity
of the photograph and that it showed the existence of a step to the entrance of the maternal block, confirming that
the COF still does not guarantee the necessary accessibility for a person confined to a wheelchair.
29
30
Cf. Case García Ibarra et al. v. Ecuador, supra, para. 40.
Annex I is a document prepared by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and the Institute for
Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences of Guatemala (ICCPG) containing observations regarding compliance with
the Judgments delivered by the Inter-American Court in the cases of Fermín Ramírez v. Guatemala and Raxcacó
Reyes v. Guatemala, and the implementation of the provisional measures ordered in favor of Bernardino Rodríguez
Lara.
31
Annex III is Cifras de Impunidad del Crimen Policial Contra Mujeres (Rates of Impunity in Police Crimes
against Women), a report published by the Guatemalan Institute for Comparative Studies in Criminal Sciences in
2005.
32
Annex IV is a report published on the web site of the Guatemalan organization Casa Artesana on the situation
of the COF in 2014, which concludes that the situation of women deprived of their liberty remains non-compliant with
the Bangkok Rules. Annexes V and VI contain news reports published in the media mentioned on page 22 of the brief
of final arguments.
33
Annex IX is a certification of psychological and psychiatric treatment issued by a psychiatrist concerning the
therapy that she gave Mrs. Chinchilla Sandoval at the COF and the treatment given to her children after her death.
34
14