80
156. For all the aforementioned reasons, the Court finds that the State violated
Article 21 of the American Convention, to the detriment of the members of the Yakye
Axa Community, in combination with Articles 1(1) and 2 of that same Convention.
X
VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 4(1) OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION
(RIGHT TO LIFE)
IN COMBINATION WITH ARTICLE 1(1) OF THAT SAME CONVENTION
Pleadings of the Commission
157.
With regard to Article 4 of the Convention, the Commission alleged that:
a) the right to life is a basic human right, essential for enjoyment of the
other human rights. This right encompasses not only the right of every
human being not to be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life, but also the right
not to be denied the conditions required to ensure a decent existence;
b) the State, by not ensuring the right of the Community to its ancestral
territory, has failed to comply with its duty to guarantee the life of its
members, as it has deprived the Community of its traditional means of
subsistence, forcing it to survive under appalling conditions and leaving it at
the mercy of State assistance;
c) in the instant case 57 families, members of the Yakye Axa Indigenous
Community, have been living since 1996 in a place that is clearly inadequate
to develop their lives under minimally decent conditions, waiting for the State
to effectively guarantee their right to live in their ancestral territory and thus
to not only carry out their traditional subsistence activities, but also preserve
their cultural identity;
d) lack of an effective guarantee of the Community’s right to property has
placed its members in a situation of extreme vulnerability that has entailed
the death of several of its members due to causes that could have been
avoided with adequate food and medical care;
e) the situation of risk or vulnerability of the Yakye Axa Indigenous
Community has been created by State negligence, a fact that has not been
challenged; quite the contrary, the State itself declared a “state of emergency
in the Community” in 1999. Said negligence took place in a context in which
Paraguay has the obligation to ensure the conditions required for attainment
of a decent life, a duty that is underlined by the commitment reflected in
Article 26 of the American Convention, to take appropriate steps for complete
realization of social rights. Nevertheless, by omission in its public health
policies, the State diminished the enjoyment of basic public health, nutritional
and housing conditions by the members of the Yakye Axa Community;
f) the decree that declared a state of emergency in the Community has not
been made effective in an appropriate manner. Supply of food and medical
care by the State for the members of the Yakye Axa Community has been
clearly insufficient and irregular, and
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