out from 2020 onwards to ascertain Pedro Movilla’s whereabouts (supra paras. 102 and 103).
However, it notes that the State accepts that it failed to draw up a plan to search for the victim
until that year. Moreover, the facts do not suggest that a specific, comprehensive search plan
has been implemented in the case, a measure deemed necessary by the State authorities
themselves (supra para. 103).166 Therefore, the Court finds that the State’s responsibility for
lack of diligence in undertaking search actions has not been rectified.
148. Lastly, the Court notes that the State pointed out that its acknowledgment of
responsibility did not include the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Inspector General’s
Office, nor the administrative proceedings (supra para. 19). In this regard, the Court recalls that
it has observed, with specific reference to Colombia’s Inspector General’s Office, that disciplinary
proceedings “may complement but not entirely replace the function of the criminal jurisdiction
in cases of serious human rights violations.”167 Therefore, and since the State has acknowledged
its responsibility for failing, until 2019, to undertake a diligent criminal investigation in order to
punish those responsible for Pedro Movilla’s disappearance, a specific or differentiated
examination of the actions of the Inspector General’s Office is not necessary. 168 As for the
administrative proceedings, no arguments have been presented claiming that they have resulted
in the violation of rights under the Convention, so an examination of those actions is not
necessary either.
B) Right to the truth
B.1 Arguments of the Commission and the parties
149. The Commission referred to the right to the truth in the context of its arguments
regarding the violation of the personal integrity of Mr. Movilla’s relatives, as well as those
concerning the rights to judicial guarantees and judicial protection. It maintained that the right
to the truth “requires the procedural determination of the most complex historical truth possible,
which includes the judicial determination of the patterns of joint performance of action and of all
the persons that took part in such violations and their respective responsibilities,” and that the
“absence of truth” affects the right to personal integrity. It also found that “the State did not
make due efforts” to identify the connection of the disappearance of Pedro Julio Movilla Galarcio
with his union and political activities, and with the intelligence notes. The Commission also
observed “a lack of clarification of the grounds of such notes, and that few proceedings of
investigation were carried out with this purpose.”
150. The representatives maintained that the State “has failed to guarantee Pedro Julio
Movilla’s relatives access to any dimension of the truth having to do with protection.”169 They
stressed that the investigation was initiated on the grounds of “kidnapping for ransom,” and that
In this regard, expert Camacho observed that “parallel actions” were carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office and
the UBPD, without “interagency coordination” or evidence of agreements between the two entities regarding their role
in the search. The expert suggested that “partial [institutional] coordination actions” were barely getting under way,
“with no coordinated, comprehensive search in place” or, even a “structured, coordinated and efficient strategy.”
167
Case of the Pueblo Bello Massacre v. Colombia. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of January 31, 2006.
Series C No. 140, para. 203 and Case of the Displaced Afro-descendant Communities of the Cacarica River Basin
(Operation Genesis) v. Colombia, supra, para. 395.
168
Furthermore, the Commission, and the representatives in their pleadings and motions brief, did not draw any
distinction between the criminal and disciplinary proceedings in their arguments regarding the obligation to investigate,
but instead focused on the State’s actions as a whole, citing acts in relation to both proceedings. For example, at the
public hearing the representatives affirmed that closing down the investigation showed the shortcomings in the
disciplinary proceedings.
169
The representatives argued that the right to the truth entails, firstly, the right of victims or their relatives to
the clarification of the facts and the determination of responsibilities, and to the disclosure of the findings of the criminal
and investigative proceedings; and, secondly, the right of victims’ relatives to know their fate or, if applicable, the
whereabouts of their remains.
166
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