111
3.1.
Identification, prosecution and punishment of those responsible for the
gender-based disappearance, ill-treatment and murder of Mss. González,
Ramos and Herrera
452. The Commission indicated that “a full reparation requires that the State
investigate the disappearances and subsequent murders [of the victims] with due
diligence and impartiality, and exhaustively, in order to clarify the historic truth of the
facts. To this end, [the State] must adopt all necessary judicial and administrative
measures to complete the investigation, find, prosecute and punish the perpetrator or
perpetrators and mastermind or masterminds and provide full information on the
results.” The representatives endorsed this request.
453. The Court accepted the State’s acknowledgement of responsibility for the
irregularities committed during the first stage of the investigations, but also concluded
that many of them were not rectified during the second stage (supra para. 388). The
Tribunal found that, in this case, impunity existed and that this impunity is a cause and
also a consequence of the series of gender-based murders of women that have been
proven in the instant case.
454. The Court considers that the State is obliged to combat said situation of
impunity by all available means, because it encourages the chronic repetition of human
rights violations.450 The absence of a complete and effective investigation into the facts
constitutes a source of additional suffering and anguish for the victims, who have the
right to know the truth about what happened.451 This right to the truth requires the
determination of the most complete historical truth possible, which includes
determination of the collective patterns of action, and of all those who, in different
ways, took part in said violations.452
455. Therefore, the Tribunal orders that the State must conduct effectively the
criminal proceedings that are underway and, if applicable, those that may be opened in
the future, to identify, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and masterminds of the
disappearance, ill-treatments and deprivation of life of Mss. González, Herrera and
Ramos, in keeping with the following directives:
a) All factual or juridical obstacles to the due investigation of the facts and
conduct of the respective judicial proceedings shall be removed and all
available means used to ensure that the investigations and judicial
proceedings are conducted promptly in order to avoid a repetition of the
same or similar acts as those in the instant case
b) The investigation shall include a gender perspective; undertake specific lines
of inquiry concerning sexual assault, which must involve lines of inquiry into
the corresponding patterns in the area; be conducted in accordance with
protocols and manuals that comply with the directives set out in this
judgment; provide the victims’ next of kin with information on progress in
the investigation regularly, and give them full access to the case files, and
the investigation shall be carried out by officials who are highly trained in
450
Cf. Case of Goiburú et al. v. Paraguay. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of September 22,
2006. Series C No. 153, para. 164; Case of the Ituango Massacres v. Colombia. Preliminary Objection,
Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of July 1, 2006. Series C No. 148, para. 399, and Case of Baldeón
García v. Peru, supra note 261, para. 195.
451
Cf. Case of Heliodoro Portugal v. Panamá, supra note 297, para. 146, and Case of Valle Jaramillo et
al. v. Colombia, supra note 49, para. 102.
452
Cf. Case of the Rochela Massacre v. Colombia, supra note 397, para. 195, and Case of Valle
Jaramillo et al. v. Colombia, supra note 49, para. 102.
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