“Mapiripán Massacre” v. Colombia

Abstract

State responsibility — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Obligation to respect rights and domestic legal effects — Articles 1(1) and 2 as basis for international State responsibility — American Convention on Human Rights as lex specialis vis-à-vis general international law — State responsibility for actions and omissions by public authorities and private individuals — International humanitarian law — Article 3 of 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II — Interpretation of American Convention on Human Rights — State obligations to protect civilians in non-international armed conflictHuman rights — Right to life — Right to humane treatment — Right to personal liberty — Obligation to respect rights — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Condition to ensure right to life — Duty to investigate violations of that right — Non-identification of victims as result of massacre and grave lack of compliance with State’s duty to protect — No limitation of victims to those identified — Right to humane treatment of family members — No evidence required of grave impact on emotional well-being — Whether Colombia violating Articles 4, 5 and 7, in relation to Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human RightsHuman rights — Rights of the child — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969, Article 19 — Scope of this right — Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, Articles 6, 37, 38 and 39, and Additional Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions — Interpretation of American Convention on Human Rights — International corpus juris for child protection — Special vulnerability of children in domestic armed conflict — Whether Colombia violating Article 19, in relation to Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human RightsHuman rights — Right to freedom of movement and residence — Differentiated situation of displaced persons — State obligation of preferential treatment and positive steps to reverse effects — Evolutive interpretation of Article 22(1) of American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Right to not be forcefully displaced within a State Party — Whether Colombia violating Article 22, in relation to Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human RightsHuman rights — Right to fair trial and right to judicial protection — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969, Articles 8 and 25 — Restrictive and exceptional scope of military criminal jurisdiction — Assessment of effectiveness of domestic administrative 312proceedings — Result of administrative proceedings taken into account in reparations — Criteria — Length of criminal proceedings — Complexity — Procedural activity of interested party — Conduct of judicial authorities — Pertinence of criteria depending on circumstances of case — State duty to start investigations promptly and ex officio — Procedural activity of interested parties not decisive if limited as result of threats and displacement — Complexity of case linked to acts and omissions by State — Whether Colombia violating Articles 8 and 25, in relation to Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human RightsInternational tribunals — Inter-American Court of Human Rights — Preliminary objections by Colombia — Exhaustion of domestic remedies — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969, Article 46 — Content of preliminary objection tied to merits of case — Loss of “preliminary nature” — Partial acknowledgement of international responsibility — Competence of Court — Judgment on Preliminary Objections — Judgment on Merits, Reparations and CostsDamages — Reparations — Monetary and other — Colombia to investigate liability of masterminds, direct perpetrators, collaborators and those who acquiesced to massacre — Colombia individually to identify executed and disappeared victims and family members — Colombia to establish mechanism with victim representation for compliance with reparations — Colombia to provide treatment to family members of victims as long as necessary and without cost — Colombia to ensure security conditions for displaced family members and inhabitants to enable their return — Colombia to build a monument in remembrance of massacre — Colombia to implement permanent education programme on human rights and international humanitarian law for Colombian Armed Forces — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969, Article 63(1)