91
Assistance. This component includes training with a multicultural and community approach for
professionals. The State considered “very appropriate” the representatives’ suggestion that the
psychological care provided to the victims should be with their prior consent, because in
communities such as the village of Plan de Sánchez and Concúl, in the municipality of Rabinal,
the victims do not come to receive psychological therapy, but they cannot be forced to receive it
for the sole purpose of complying with an international obligation. Therefore, the State agrees
that the psychological and medical therapies should be optional and not obligatory, and that a list
of persons who are to receive these treatments should be issued.”
302. In Chapters IX.I and IX.II of this judgment, the Court concluded that the forced disappearance
of 22 victims also violated the psychological and moral integrity of their next of kin, and that the
failure to guarantee return or resettlement measures for the displaced victims had differentiated
effects and impacts on their life projects, relationships and family structure, and on their ethnic
and cultural identity, as well as on the women and children who were victims (supra paras. 164,
190, 197, 198 and 202). In this regard, during the public hearing, the expert witness Luis Raúl
Salvadó Cardoza pointed out the importance of psychological assistance to the displaced
population, highlighting the need for “social psychology” actions. Furthermore, although
Governmental Agreement 539-2013 of the President of the Republic provides for “Psychosocial
Reparation and Rehabilitation” 357 under the PRN, the State has not proven that it has offered such
a measure to the victims in the present case. In addition, as indicated above, the State has not
disputed that the PRN office in the municipality of Rabinal was closed. (supra para. 280).
303. Therefore, as it has done in other cases, 358 the Court considers it necessary to order a measure
of reparation that provides appropriate treatment for the psychological and physical suffering of the
victims arising from the violations established in this judgment. In order to contribute to the
reparation of the harm caused, the Court establishes the obligation of the State to provide free of
charge, through its specialized health institutions, and in an immediate, adequate, comprehensive
and effective manner, medical and psychological or psychiatric treatment to the victims who so
request it, with their prior informed consent, including the free supply of any medications that may
be required, taking into consideration their individual ailments. This means that, as victims of
human rights violations, they should receive preferential treatment in the procedures required to
obtain assistance in public institutions. Likewise, the respective treatment must be provided, as far
as possible, at the health centers nearest to their places of residence for as long as necessary. In
providing psychological or psychiatric treatment, the particular circumstances and needs of each
victim must also be considered, so that they are offered collective, family and individual treatment,
according to what is agreed with each of them and after an individual evaluation. The victims who
request this measure of reparation, or their legal representatives, have six months from notification
of this judgment to inform COPREDEH of their intention to receive medical, psychological or
psychiatric care.
304. In response to the representatives' request (supra para. 300), the medical and psychological
care may be provided by the healers of the Maya Achí community, in accordance with their own
health practices and using traditional medicines, 359 for which purpose the State must, through
the State institution responsible for providing health care to the indigenous peoples of Guatemala,
agree with the representatives on the manner in which this reparation will be implemented.
Article 2 bis. Governmental Agreement 539-2013 (evidence file, folio 9927).
Cf. Case of the Dos Erres Massacre v. Guatemala, para. 270 and Case of Tenorio Roca et al. v. Peru, para. 284.
359
Cf. Case of the Río Negro Massacres v. Guatemala, para. 289. See, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, Article 24; ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in independent countries, 1989 (No.
169): Article 25; in the publication Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples: A Manual (2003), p. 66, see
the ILO guidelines for the implementation of health programs. These programs should be: i) community-based; ii)
complementary to traditional healing practices, and should include these; iii) promote the active participation of the
communities; iv) local people should be trained to provide health care services, and v) governments should provide the
resources for these health care services, as they do for all citizens.
357
358