82
267. The Court has established that reparations must have a causal nexus with the facts of the
case, the violations declared, the damage proven, as well as the measures requested to repair the
respective harm. 327
268. In consideration of the violations of the Convention declared in the preceding chapters, the
Court will analyze the claims presented by the Commission and the representatives, as well as the
arguments of the State, in light of the criteria established in its case law regarding the nature and
scope of the obligation to make reparations, for the purpose of ordering measures aimed at
repairing the damage caused to the victims. 328
269. The Court finds it pertinent to reiterate that the denial of justice to the detriment of the
victims of serious human rights violations, such as those in the instant case, results in a variety
of effects in both the individual and the collective sphere. Thus, it is evident that the victims of
prolonged impunity suffer different adverse effects owing to their search for justice, not only of
a pecuniary nature, but also suffering and damage of a psychological and physical nature, and
to their life project, as well as other possible changes in their social relationships and their
families and community dynamics. This Court has indicated that such suffering is increased by
the absence of support from the State authorities in the effective search for and identification of
the remains, and the impossibility of honoring their loved ones appropriately. Accordingly, the
Court has considered the need to grant different measures of reparation, in order to redress the
damage fully; thus, in addition to pecuniary compensation, measures of satisfaction, restitution
and rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-repetition, have special relevance owing to the severity
of the effects and the collective nature of the damage caused. 329
A. Injured party
270. In the instant case, the Commission asked the Court to order the State to establish
mechanisms for: i) “the full identification of the victims executed”; ii) “the determination of the
persons who disappeared in the massacres” and “the survivors” thereof; and iii) “the full
identification of the next of kin of the victims who were executed and disappeared, so that they
may claim the reparations to which they are entitled.” The representatives requested the
creation of “a mechanism to identify all the surviving victims of the massacres [, as well as] their
next of kin [,] and that the Court leave open the possibility that those surviving victims [who]
are identified by the State be included as victims and, consequently, as beneficiaries of the
reparations.”
271. The State referred to the efforts it is making to locate, exhume and identify the remains of
the victims in the municipality of Rabinal (infra para. 291). It also referred to the criteria applied
to qualify as a beneficiary of the National Reparations Program (PNR), the easing of requirements
for the registration of the population in the civil registries and the creation of the National Registry
of Persons (RENAP), whose purpose is to organize and maintain a single identification registry of
natural persons. Thus, it affirmed that it has “a mechanism that facilitates the identification of
persons so that they may subsequently be beneficiaries of the reparations.”
272. The Court reiterates that, according to Article 63(1) of the Convention, the injured party is
the party that has been declared a victim of the violation of any right recognized in the
Convention. 330 Therefore, the Court considers as “injured party” those persons referred to in
Cf. Case of Ticona Estrada et al. v. Bolivia. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November 27, 2008. Series C No.
191, para. 110, and Case of Herrera Espinoza et al. v. Ecuador, para. 211.
328
Cf. Case of Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras. Reparations and costs, paras. 25 to 27, and Case of Herrera Espinoza
et al. v. Ecuador, para. 213.
329
Cf. Case of the Dos Erres Massacre v. Guatemala, para. 226, and Case of Massacres of El Mozote and Nearby Places
v. El Salvador, para. 305.
330
Cf. Case of La Rochela Massacre v. Colombia. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of May 11, 2007. Series
C No. 163, para. 233, and Case of Herrera Espinoza et al. v. Ecuador, para. 212.
327