68
cruel, inhumane or degrading acts perpetrated against them, which constitute a violation of
Articles 4(1), 5(1), 5(2) and 7 of the Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the
detriment of the above mentioned persons. The international responsibility of the State is
aggravated by the context in which the events occurred, analyzed in the previous chapter,
as well as by the non-compliance with the protection and investigation duties described in
this chapter.
b)
The right to recognition of the juridical personality of disappeared persons
117. Although the State has acquiesced to the violation of Article 3 of the American
Convention, alleged by the Inter-American Commission and the representatives (supra
para. 41), the Court is empowered, under Article 53(2) of the Rules of Procedure, to decide
"on the validity of the acquiescence and its legal effects" (supra paras. 47 to 50 and 52).
118. The argument of the Commission focuses on the fact that, as a consequence of the
forced disappearance of the alleged victims, these people were "were excluded from the
legal and institutional system of the Peruvian state,” that is to say, the perpetrators of the
disappearance "attempted to create a 'legal limbo' through the state's failure to admit that
they were being held in its custody, the fact that victims were unable to exercise their rights
and their next of kin's lack of knowledge of their situation or whereabouts.”
119. Previously, in another case involving forced disappearance of people, the Court had
the chance to rule on the merits in relation to the alleged violation of Article 3 of the above
mentioned instrument. In the case of Bámaca Velásquez v. Guatemala, the Court
considered that the State had not violated the victim's right to juridical personality, since
[n]aturally, the arbitrary deprivation of life suppresses the human being and, consequently, in
these circumstances, it is not in order to invoke an alleged violation of the right to juridical
personality or other rights embodied in the American Convention. The right to the recognition of
juridical personality established in Article 3 of the American Convention has its own juridical
content, as do the other rights protected by the Convention.103
120. With regard to the juridical content of Article 3 of the American Convention, also
enshrined in other international instruments104, the Inter-American Court has defined it as
the right of every person
to be recognized everywhere as a person having rights and obligations, and to enjoy the basic
civil rights. The right to the recognition of juridical personality implies the capacity to be the
holder of rights (capacity of exercise) and obligations; the violation of this recognition presumes
an absolute disavowal of the possibility of being a holder of such rights and obligations.105
103
Cf. Case of Bámaca-Velásquez. Judgment of November 25, 2000. Series C No. 70, para. 180. Cf., also,
Case of Durand and Ugarte. Judgment August 16, 2000. Series C No. 68, para. 79.
104
Cf., Among others, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 6; International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, Article 16; American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, Article XVII, and African Charter
on Human and Peoples' Rights, Article 5.
105
Cf. Case of Bámaca-Velásquez, supra note 104, para. 179, quoted in Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico.
Judgment of September 8, 2005. Series C No. 130, para. 176, and Case of Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community.
Judgment of March 29, 2006. Series C No. 146, para. 188.
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