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violence that had repercussions at many levels: individual, family and social; and in many aspects:
financial, health and in access to education and to justice, that is, in the life project.” For this reason,
they considered it necessary to “adopt a systematic pattern of comprehensive reparations, to heal the
damaged relationships throughout society, in other words, to move beyond individual or family
support, toward a psychosocial healing at the community, collective and social levels,” with the
following actions: provide comprehensive healthcare programs and support from institutions that offer
a life with human dignity that will contribute to improve the quality of life of the next of kin of victims
of forced disappearance; promote knowledge of the truth by opening up the military archives and
other records kept by public institutions; create memorial museums to educate the new generations
about the events that took place; write the history of the events that occurred and publish it through
stories and narrations that recount what happened in the country, and open up routes of hope for the
families; create a center that provides comprehensive psychosocial support, with a highly committed
multidisciplinary team capable of implementing appropriate intervention strategies and a cross-cutting
human rights program to address the multidimensional complexity of the victims’ lives and next of
kin of Asociación Pro Búsqueda. The center should be established by the next of kin and victims and
staffed by professionals in psychosocial support, with social sensitivity in managing the psychosocial
trauma resulting from human rights violations. It should offer a program for all family members who
are searching for their children and for young people who have been found, differentiating between
adults and young populations; allow young people the possibility of changing their given names and
surnames with governmental support; and, create a web page where young people from all countries
can connect with each other and organize face-to-face international meetings –promoted by the Statewhere they can meet each other in person and share their experiences.
238.
The State did not comment on this request for reparation.
Considerations of the Court
239. The Court recalls that, in the Case of Contreras et al., it welcomed and took note of the
agreements and coordination achieved between the State and the representatives in order to establish
a comprehensive program of psychosocial care for victims of forced disappearance who have been
found and their next of kin, as well as the next of kin of those who are still missing, and indicated
that this aspect would not be monitored by the Court. Therefore, the Court does not consider it
appropriate to order this measure in the instant case.
4.
Guarantees of non-repetition
a)
Education and training measures
240. The representatives requested the creation of a general course on human rights at the
University of El Salvador, with a specific topic on the crime of forced disappearance, including cases
of children who disappeared during the internal armed conflict, in order to “dismantle existing
prejudices and construct a vision based on the dignity of the victims and with a serious academic
approach that will raise awareness among different social sectors in the long term.” They pointed out
that the course should take into account the academic and scientific knowledge accumulated by the
country’s only public university, which has the largest number of students, in order to ensure that it
is effective, as well as the Search Association, given its expertise in this topic. The representatives
also asked that a diploma course on “Transitional Justice” be imparted to public officials involved in
implementing the measures of reparation ordered by the Court, and providing assistance to victims
of forced disappearance, with the aim of raising awareness about topics related to transitional justice
in cases of forced disappearance and the State’s obligation to redress the damage caused to the
victims. Likewise, the representatives proposed the creation of a course on historical memory in the
educational curriculum for third cycle and high school students, emphasizing knowledge of the
judgments delivered by the Inter-American Court in cases of disappeared children. This, in