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courses offered by the Ministry of Justice and Labor and that on September 26, 2009
they started the four first courses in the elaboration of cleaning products, administration
of human resources, bakery and pastry, and residential electricity. On the other part,
one of the victims entered the Trial Course for Acceptance into the School of Veterinarian
Sciences of the University of Asunción and they were exempt from the corresponding
tariffs.
20.
That regarding the medical and psychological treatment the representatives
stated that progress was achieved despite the late start in compliance with this
obligation, which occurred in March 2008. The staff of the Ministry of Justice and Labor
went to the homes of several victims to start carrying out evaluations and “a systematic
plan has been established in order to reach the entire population affected.” However,
they indicated that some of the victims have been summoned, for the realization of the
medical diagnosis, to the Itauguá Educational Center, where some officials that carried
out tasks at the Children’s Reeducation Institute at the time the victims were deprived of
freedom are employed. Therefore, some of them do not wish to visit that location out of
“fear of being the object of retaliation or a denigrating treatment.” They added that the
difficulties to perform the medical diagnosis “cannot be used as a justification by the
State for not having done everything within its reach in order to satisfy that ordered by
the Court.” They asked the Tribunal to request that the State provide information
regarding: i) the specific result of the evaluations performed and their follow-up in order
to guarantee the victims’ access to medical and psychological treatments; ii) the
processes carried out in order to practice the medical and educational evaluations on the
victims that have not yet been contacted, and iii) follow-up that is being performed on
those victims who are enrolled in training courses.
21.
That during the public hearing the representatives stated that “[t]he information
[provided] by the State lacks systematization and the necessary support to be able to
evaluate the effective compliance with the obligations.” The State has not informed of
the total number of people who have used the benefit of medical attention. Likewise, the
State has not presented any document proving the constant psychological additional
assistance argued and according to that informed by some of the victims, these have not
received psychological attention and they did not seem to be aware it was available.
They reiterated that this obligation “implies a positive action on behalf of the State in
order to diagnose and treat the physical and psychological consequences the violations
had […], reason for which their actions cannot be limited to a mere offer of medical and
psychological attention.” With regard to the offer of education programs, they
acknowledged that the State’s initiative is important, but some beneficiaries are not
aware that the courses are available.
22.
That the Commission took note of the processes carried out with the objective of
preparing medical charts and offering medical attention to some victims, of granting of a
scholarship to one of them, and of the processes carried out to identify and locate the
other victims. However, it stated its concern for the limited number of survivors that
have been benefited from these reparations, due to “the lack of credibility of the State’s
initiatives for the reparation of the damage caused,” and due to the health situation of
some of the victims that are deprived of freedom who, given the seriousness of the
injuries suffered, should have received assistance. It warned that the offering of those
services is an obligation that cannot be delayed.
23.
That at the private hearing for monitoring compliance the Commission observed
that there would be an agreement to create a system for the registry of the next of kin
and it requested that the State inform when that registry would be in operation.