- 9notion of victim21 supported by the consistent case law of the Court since Blake v. Guatemala (judgment on merits of January 24, 1998). 30. However, in a case such as The Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador, which occurred in the context of a true human tragedy that resulted in hundreds of victims, the human rights violations, in addition to affecting the direct victims and the indirect victims (their next of kin), had an impact on the whole social tissue. In this regard, I stated in my separate opinion in the “Street Children” case (Villagrán Morales et al. v. Guatemala, judgment on reparations, of May 26, 2001), that: "(..) although those responsible for the established order do not realize it, the suffering of those who are excluded is inexorably projected on the whole social body. [...] Human suffering has both an individual and a social dimension. Thus, the damage caused to each human being, however humble, affects the whole community. As this case reveals, the victims proliferate among the immediate surviving next of kin who are also forced to live with the torment of the silence, indifference and oblivion of those around them" (para. 22). 31. In this case, the most recent inventory drawn up by the Asociación ProBúsqueda, which forms part of the case file, lists 698 children who disappeared during the Salvadoran armed conflict, aged at the time from less than one year to 18 years old.22 Faithful compliance with Article 19 of the American Convention, in circumstances such as those of the instant case, which occurred in the context of this human tragedy, require the immediate search for, tracing, finding, family reunion,23 and psychological treatment of the disappeared children who are found. Most efforts in this regard have been undertaken by civil society entities (such as, above all, the Asociación ProBúsqueda24), moved by human solidarity, and not by the public authorities,25 who have the duty to protect all those subject to their jurisdiction. 21 A.A. Cançado Trindade, "Co-existence and Co-ordination of Mechanisms of International Protection of Human Rights (At Global and Regional Levels)", 202 Recueil des Cours de l'Académie de Droit International de La Haye (1987), chapter XI ("The Evolution of the Notion of Victim or of the Condition of the Complainant in the International Protection of Human Rights"), pp. 243-299. 22 Some of the children identified were found alive in different situations, in orphanages or with families in El Salvador and abroad, in the Americas and in Europe (through de facto “adoptions” or undue appropriation by civilians and members of the Army). The Asociación Pro-Búsqueda is investigating 126 cases of international adoptions, and also cases of alleged victims of the illicit trafficking of children (with the possible alteration of first and last names). 23 As required also by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 39. 24 As expressly stated by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, doc. CRC/C/15/Add.232, of 30 June 2004, para. 31), which attributed the tracing and identification of almost 250 children principally to the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda, and has expressed its “concern” because the State had not “played a larger role in the investigation into the disappearance of 700 other children” during the Salvadoran armed conflict from 1980-1991 (Ibíd., p. 7, para. 31). 25 The respondent State even questioned the very existence of the sisters, Erlinda and Ernestina Serrano Cruz, in this case before the Inter-American Court, and did not adopt all necessary measures to determine their whereabouts and safeguard their right to identity (which includes the right to a name and the right to the protection of the family), a situation which persists until today. The Serrano Cruz sisters, who continue disappeared, were sought by their mother before she died, and continue to be sought by their living siblings. Moreover, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has urged the State of El Salvador to present “detailed information on the number of children found alive and those who perished during the 1980-1991 armed conflict; UN, document CCPR/CO/78/SLV, of 22 August 2003, p. 5, para. 19.