378. The representatives requested that the Brazilian State organize a public act to
acknowledge international responsibility during which the Armed Forces should make an
official apology for the arbitrary detention, torture and murder of Vladimir Herzog. The State
should acknowledge responsibility for acts and omissions, especially owing to the denial of
justice. They considered that senior representatives of the public powers and the Armed Forces
should take part in the act, and that it should be prepared and organized with the participation
of the victims.
379. The State argued that the State’s responsibility for the arbitrary detention, torture and
death of Vladimir Herzog had been acknowledged by the delivery of the death certificate during
a ceremony of the Amnesty Caravan in 2013. It indicated that the request for an apology from
the Armed Forces was not possible because this referred to facts prior to 1998 and, therefore,
before the State had accepted the Court’s jurisdiction.
380. The Court finds it necessary that the State organize a public act to acknowledge
international responsibility for the facts of this case in honor of the memory of Vladimir Herzog
and to apologize for the failure to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for his
torture and death. During this act, mention should be made of the human rights violations
declared in this judgment. Also, it should take place in a public ceremony in the presence of
senior officials of the State and the Armed Forces, and the victims. The State and the victims
and/or their representatives must agree on how to comply with this public act of
acknowledgment, and also on the details, such as the date and place. 406
ii)
Publication of the judgment
381. The representatives asked that the State publish the sections of the judgment that
refer to the proven facts, the analysis of the violations of the American Convention, and the
operative paragraphs in two national newspapers.
382. The State acknowledged the relevance of the publication of the Court’s judgments and
mentioned that it keeps the judgments delivered in the cases of Sétimo Garibaldi and Gomes
Lund et al. on the website of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights. The State undertook
to publish this judgment in the same terms as those two cases. In addition, regarding the
publication in national newspapers, the State referred to the high cost of such publications
and proposed that, instead of publishing the judgment in national newspapers, the Court order
its publication on official websites and its dissemination by the social networks of government
agencies. The State considered that this proposal would ensure that the judgment had
widespread impact.
383. The Court establishes, as it has in other cases, 407 that the State should publish, within
six months of notification of this judgment: (a) the entire judgment, once, in the Official
Gazette, in a legible and appropriate font size; (b) the official summary of this judgment
prepared by the Court, once, in a national newspaper with widespread circulation, and (c) the
entire judgment and its summary, available for at least one year, on the official websites of
the Special Secretariat for Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice and Citizenship, and the
Brazilian Army, in a manner accessible to the public, and its dissemination by social networks,
as follows: the Twitter and Facebook pages of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights and
Cf. Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November
23, 2009. Series C No. 209, para. 353 and Case of I.V. v. Bolivia. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and
costs. Judgment of November 30, 2016. Series C No. 329, para. 336.
406
407
Cf. Case of Cantoral Benavides v. Peru. Reparations and costs, para. 79, and Case of the Dismissed Employees of
PetroPeru et al. v. Peru, para. 211.
96