-120investigation into the facts and in view of the limitations inherent in this type of
procedure – owing to the nature of the offences investigated and the mandate of the
body in charge of the investigations – this procedure did not constitute a sufficient or
effective recourse for the respective purposes.
Administrative proceedings
205. Since 2001, the next of kin of 39 of the victims of the Pueblo Bello massacre
have filed claims for direct reparation before the Administrative Court of Antioquia, in
Medellín, in relation to the facts of the instant case. The purpose of these claims is
for the court to declare “the Colombian Nation - Ministry of National Defense –
National Army […] administratively responsible” for pecuniary and non-pecuniary
damage, “including the damage arising from alterations in family, social and affective
life,” caused to the next of kin as a result of the violation of “the rights to life,
humane treatment, security, liberty, [to effective judicial protection, judicial
guarantees, to the truth and to justice] arising from the collective forced
disappearance of the victims […].”
206. In the “Mapiripán Massacre” case, the Court found that the comprehensive
reparation of a violation of a right protected by the Convention cannot be reduced to
the payment of compensation to the next of kin of the victim. Hence, it took into
account some of the results obtained in the administrative proceedings instituted by
the next of kin of the victims in that case, considering that the compensation
established by those instances for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage was
included in the broadest concepts of pecuniary and non-pecuniary reparations. Thus,
the Court indicated that those results could be considered when establishing the
pertinent reparations, “on the condition that what was decided in those proceedings
has been considered res judicata and is reasonable in the circumstances of the
case.”239 When establishing the international responsibility of the State for the
violation of the human rights embodied in Articles 8(1) and 25 of the American
Convention, a substantial aspect of the dispute before the Court is not whether
judgments were delivered at the national level or whether settlements were reached
on the civil or administrative responsibility of a State body with regard to the
violations committed to the detriment of the next of kin of the persons disappeared
or deprived of life, but whether the domestic proceedings allowed real access to
justice to be ensured, according to the standards established in the American
Convention.240
207. In this respect, the European Court of Human Rights examined the scope of
civil responsibility in relation to the requirements of international protection in Yasa
v. Turkey, and found that:
An administrative-law action is a remedy based on the strict liability of the State, in
particular for the illegal acts of its agents, whose identification is not, by definition, a
prerequisite to bringing an action of this nature. However, the investigations which the
Contracting States are obliged [...] to conduct in cases of fatal assault must be able to
lead to the identification and punishment of those responsible [...t]hat obligation cannot
be satisfied merely by awarding damages [...] Otherwise, [...] the State’s obligation to
seek those guilty of fatal assault might thereby disappear.241
239
Cf. Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre”, supra note 7, para. 214.
240
Cf. Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre”, supra note 7, para. 211.
241
Cf. European Court of Human Rights. Yasa v. Turkey [GC], judgment of 2 September 1998,
Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-VI, § 74.
Seleccionar párrafo de destino3
Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos