9.
Mrs. Morales received a survivor's (widow’s) pension and
education and health benefits for specified beneficiaries (her children) to
a specified age limit under Law 19.123. The constitutional governments
granted these benefits to the relatives of victims, claim the petitioners,
but such pensions and subsistence allowances must not be confused
with real measures of reparation.
10. The petitioner complains that this application of the rules of civil
law, which are intended to govern relationships between private
individuals, to a dispute under public law regulated by the Constitution
and by international human rights treaties is "extraordinarily erroneous,
prejudicial to the interest of the victims, their relatives, and a violation
of the international law of human rights". By applying these provisions
that deny the right to reparations, the courts are thereby placing the
State of Chile in flagrant violation of the American Convention
specifically, Article 2, which requires states to adapt their internal
legislation to the provisions of the Convention, something that has not
occurred in this case. The petitioner, consequently, requested the
Commission to accept the complaint and to declare that the judgments
of the Chilean courts, in applying the statutory limitations of civil law to
an issue involving violations of human rights and thereby preventing
just reparations for the relatives of the victims, violated the
commitments assumed by the Chilean State when it signed the
American Convention, in particular the rights enshrined in Articles 1(1),
2, 8 and 25 of that treaty.
B.
Position of the State
11. In its response, the State noted that it was providing information on
a complaint relating to events that occurred during the military régime
that held power in Chile between September 1973 and March 1990.
12. The State observed that the reestablishment of democratic
government marked the beginning of a lengthy and arduous process of
updating and adapting its conduct and its internal rules to bring them
into accord with international human rights treaties. The most important
fact in this connection was approval of the reform to Article 5 of the
Constitution, which provided for general recognition of international
treaties approved in this area. There was unanimous political agreement
in Chile that the exercise of sovereignty is limited by the duty to uphold
the essential rights inherent in human nature. State organs are obliged
to respect and promote these rights, guaranteed by the Constitution and
also by international treaties, in force, and to which Chile is party.
4
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