officers and members of the rank and file of the Armed Forces, security forces, police force and prison
force are not punishable for the offences referred to in article 10 point 1 of law number 23,049 on the
grounds that they were acting by virtue of due obedience.
The same presumption shall apply to superior officers who did not hold the position of commander-inchief, area head, sub-area head or head of a security, police or prison force unless it has been legally
determined within 30 days of the enactment of this law that they had decision-making powers or were
involved in the drawing up of orders.
In such cases the persons mentioned shall automatically be deemed to have acted in a state of coercion
under the subordination of the superior authority and in compliance with orders, without the power or
possibility of inspecting, opposing or resisting them in so far as their timeliness or legitimacy were
concerned.
Article 2. The presumption established in the previous article shall not apply with respect to the crimes of
rape, kidnapping, and hiding minors or falsification of their civil status and extensive appropriation of real
property.
48.
Law 25,779 promulgated on September 2, 2003 established:
ARTICLE 1. Laws 23,492 and 23,521 are hereby declared incurably null.
49.
The Commission observes that the parties make reference to the application and scope of the so-called
“reparations laws” as well as domestic procedural provisions. In this regard, the Commission observes that in
the wake of the first friendly settlement of the inter-American system – regarding a complaint against Argentina
filed by a group of persons detained and placed at the disposal of the Executive branch during the dictatorship,
and who had not received reparations because the limitations period for the civil action had run29– Decree No.
70/91 was issued, providing for compensation for those persons covered by it. Law 24,043, approved in
December 1991, expanded the spectrum of beneficiaries upon including those who had been placed at the
disposal of the Executive as of December 10, 1983, and those who had suffered detention by virtue of orders
emanating from military tribunals. Law 24,043, promulgated on December 23, 1991, indicates:
ARTICLE 1. Those persons who during the state of siege were placed at the orders of the National
Executive Branch, by its decision, or who, being civilians, suffered detention because of orders of military
tribunals, have or have not instituted a proceeding for damages, may avail themselves of the benefits of
this law, so long as they have not received any compensation pursuant to a court judgment based on the
facts contemplated herein.
ARTICLE 2. To avail oneself of the benefits of this law, the persons mentioned in the previous article shall
meet at least one of the following requirements:
(a) To have been placed under the orders of the National Executive Branch before December 10, 1983.
(b) As civilians, having been deprived of liberty due to orders emanating from military tribunals,
independent of whether there was a guilty verdict in that jurisdiction.
…
ARTICLE 5. The rights granted by this law may be exercised by the persons mentioned in Article 1 or, if
they are deceased, by their successors.
…
ARTICLE 9. The payment of the benefit entails the waiver of any right to compensation for damages
because of the deprivation of liberty, arrest, being placed at the orders of the Executive Branch, death,
or injuries and it will exclude any other benefit or compensation for the same events.
50.
This law, in turn, fits within the State’s policy of making reparation for the victims of state terrorism
under the last civic-military dictatorship. In this connection, the State has approved various laws that provide
for compensation for several groups of beneficiaries, laws whose relevant parts are transcribed next.
51.
Law 24,321, promulgated May 11, 1994, establishes:
IACHR. Report No. 1/93. Report on friendly settlement with respect to cases 10,288, 10,310, 10,436, 10,496, 10,631, and 10,771.
Argentina. March 3, 1993.
29