Pleadings of the representatives

Pleadings of the representatives

236. In the case of Article 25 of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, the representatives alleged that:

a) the State violated that article of the Convention, read in combination with Article 19 thereof and the corresponding Articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, by maintaining a juvenile justice system that violated the guarantees of due process;
b) special measures of protection were needed during the juveniles’ cases and the State’s discretionary authority should have been restricted;
c) the judicial protection required under Article 25 of the Convention applies not just to differences between adults, but also when settling disputes involving children and adolescents, and to proceedings or procedures for determining their rights or situations;
d) no prompt and effective remedy was available to defend the rights of minors;
e) the State never complied with the court ruling that granted a writ of generic habeas corpus (which took five years to get through the judicial system) and ordered that all the alleged victims be taken to a proper detention facility. The situation was particularly serious, since the lives and physical integrity of the juveniles on whose behalf the writ was granted were at stake;
f) the remedies attempted to ascertain the authorities’ blame for the human rights violations at the Center were ineffective;

g) there was no effective judicial protection for the deceased alleged victims, for those who sustained burns and injuries and for their next of kin, since the State failed to exhaust all the means at its disposal to conduct a serious investigation and punish those responsible for the human rights violations denounced; and