8
of interest on its part, but, rather, to economic and budgetary constraints that,
once overcome, gave rise to Decree No. 59-90, approved by the National
Congress on July 2, 1990. In faithful compliance with the judgments of that
Honorable Court, the Decree set aside a sum in the General Budget of Income
and Expenditures of the Republic to cover the payment of compensation to the
families of ANGEL MANFREDO VELASQUEZ RODRIGUEZ and SAUL GODINEZ
CRUZ in the manner and under the conditions established in the respective
judgments.
25. The public hearing established that, despite the stability of the lempira over a
period of many years, by the time the Court issued its judgment on damages, its
rate of exchange was exhibiting a tendency to fluctuate against strong currencies.
This fluctuation has continued and increased to date, although the official rate of
exchange has remained unchanged. It also appeared that the current provisions
governing international exchange in Honduras permit private persons to freely
acquire other currencies.
IV
26. The interpretation of a judgment involves not only precisely defining the text of
the operative parts of the judgment, but also specifying its scope, meaning and
purpose, based on the considerations of the judgments. This has been the rule
enunciated in the case law of international courts (see Eur. Court H.R., Ringeisen
case (Interpretation of the judgment of 22 June 1972), judgment of 23 June 1973,
Series A, Vol. 16).
27. The compensation due victims or their families under Article 63(1) of the
Convention must attempt to provide restitutio in integrum for the damages caused
by the measure or situation that constituted a violation of human rights. The desired
aim is full restitution for the injury suffered. This is something that is unfortunately
often impossible to achieve, given the irreversible nature of the damages suffered,
which is demonstrated in the instance case. Under such circumstances, it is
appropriate to fix the payment of "fair compensation" in sufficiently broad terms in
order to compensate, to the extent possible, for the loss suffered.
28. Therefore, in fixing the measure of damages, the Court took into account loss of
earnings, [b]ased upon a prudent estimate of the possible income of the victim for
the rest of his probable life, as well as moral damages (Godínez Cruz Case,
Compensatory Damages, Judgment of July 21, 1989, (Art. 63(1) American
Convention on Human Rights). Series C No. 8, paras. 47 and 50).
29. The fact that the damages fixed comprise loss of earnings, calculated on the
basis of probable life-span, indicates that the restitutio in integrum concept is linked
to the possibility of maintaining the real value of the damages stable over a relatively
long period of time. One way of meeting this goal is so-called "indexing", which
makes it possible to make periodic adjustments to the sums payable in order to keep
the real value constant. In general, however, that method is only applicable to cases
where damages are to be paid in installments over relatively long periods of time.
That is not true of the instant case. Here the Court ordered payment of the full
amount of compensation in one single payment, or, at most, in six consecutive
monthly installments.
30. Despite the foregoing there is no reason why a case like the instant one should
ignore the notion of preserving the real value of the amount fixed. After all, as has