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Apart from the need to obtain justice, the Commission considers the case presents issues of public
Inter-American order.
Specifically, the instant case will allow to the Inter-American Court to pronounce about the
problematic of the extrajudicial executions favored by the social stigmatization of teenagers of low income
as possible criminals. In the Case Servellon Garcia and Others v. Honduras, the Inter-American Court
pronounced in general terms of this situation and the Commission considers that the instant case offers
elements that allow deepening in a matter of mayor relevance and actuality to the continent. The instant
case constitutes a manifestation of a lack of control and mechanisms of accountability in the interior of
the police institutions, specifically when new “anti-gangs” units are created with the objective to confront
a specific sector of the population that, under the American Convention is subject of a special protection.
Moreover, the case presents fundamental aspects about how a State should respond, in terms of
justice, to a severe fact of an extrajudicial execution of a teenager by a police designated to protect the
population. This case presents the particularity of having a condemnatory judgment for the crime of “non
intentional homicide”. The reasons why it has been considered by the Commission as a source of
impunity, transcends the family of the victim and affects the inter-American public order in a context of
necessary strengthening of the inter-American standards in matter of justice of severe violations of human
rights, such as the extrajudicial executions. The Commission considers of the inter-American public order
that the Courts takes again its jurisprudence about the minimum components that an investigation of the
death of a person should have, specially when a police is responsible of the death of a child. Taking in
count the existence of one version of “accidental homicide” or “of encounter”, the Court has the
opportunity to establish the minimum obligations that this type of versions impose to the authorities in
charge of an investigation of this nature in order to ensure, through all the possible ways, a clarification of
the events and, consequently, a proportional punishment.
Considering that this matter affects significantly the Inter-American public order, according to the
article 35.1 f) of the Rules of the Inter-American Court, the Commission would also like to offer the two
following expert’s statements:
A person whose name will be informed shortly, who will refer to the obligations that imposes the
international law on human Rights in matter of special protection to children and teenagers, in the frame
of the exercise of the police functions, when the States formulates policies to respond to problematic such
as the functioning of gangs. The expert will refer to the standards in matter of prevention of abuses,
including arbitrary privations of life, by the state security personnel in the frame of security policies that
might have a specific impact in children and teenagers.
A person whose name will be informed shortly, who will refer to the International standards in
matter of access to justice in cases of extrajudicial executions. Taking in count the high incidence of this
type of investigations of versions of “encounters” or “accidental death” in this type of investigations, the
expert will offer to the Court a perspective about the minimum diligences that should be realize to
overcome the obstacles that these versions could have in the clarification of the truth and obtaining
justice to the family of the victim.
The expert’s CV will be included in the Merits Report 33/13.
Finally, the petitioners expressed the victims’ interest in the submission of the present case to the
Inter-American Court and informed that the following shall be representatives of the victims: