21 V. LEGAL ANALYSIS A. Right to life (Article 4) and humane treatment (Article 5), in connection with Article 1(1) of the American Convention and Article 7 of the Convention of Belém do Pará 87. The inter-American human rights system has affirmed the States’ obligation to act with due diligence in response to human rights violations.73 This duty involves four obligations: the obligation to prevent, the obligation to investigate, the obligation to punish and the obligation to make reparations for human rights violations.74 As the Court has held in this regard: This obligation implies the duty of States Parties to organize the governmental apparatus and, in general, all the structures through which public power is exercised, so that they are capable of juridically ensuring the free and full enjoyment of human rights. As a consequence of this obligation, the States must prevent, investigate and punish any violation of the rights recognized by the Convention and, moreover, if possible attempt to restore the right violated and provide 75 compensation as warranted for damages resulting from the violation. 88. There is an international recognition that the duty of states to act with due diligence in protecting and preventing violence against women has special connotations, due to the discrimination they have historically faced as a group.76 The preamble of the Convention of Belém do Pará recognizes that violence against women is an offense against human dignity and a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between women and men.77 89. Accordingly, it recognizes every woman’s right to be free from violence and any form of discrimination. The Convention is a reflection of the uniform concern throughout the hemisphere over the seriousness of the problem of violence against women, its relationship to the discrimination that women have historically suffered and the need to adopt comprehensive strategies to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women. 90. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women has written that based on the precedents established in the inter-American, European and universal human rights systems, “on the basis of the practice and opinio juris […], it can be concluded that there is a rule of customary international law that obliges States to prevent and respond to acts of violence against women with due diligence.”78 73 See I/A Court H.R., Case Velásquez Rodríguez, Judgment of July 29, 1988. Series C No. 4, par. 172. 74 See I/A Court H.R., Case Velásquez Rodríguez, Judgment of July 29, 1988. Series C No. 4, par. 172. 75 I/A Court H.R., Case of Velásquez Rodríguez, Judgment of July 29, 1988, Series C No. 4, par. 166. 76 IACHR, Report No. 80/11, Case 12.626, Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) et al. (United States), July 21, 2011, par. 129. 77 Article 1 of the Convention of Belém do Pará defines violence against women as “any act or conduct, based on gender, which causes death or physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, whether in the public or the private sphere.” 78 Violence against Women. The Due Diligence Standard as a Tool for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Yakin Ertürk. E/CN.4/2006/61, 2006, para. 29.