31
75.
The Court considers that the conduct of the State which has been described is
incompatible with the provisions of Article 7(5) of the Convention.
76.
In the same way, the Court refers to Chapter XI of this judgment, which
relates to Articles 8 and 25 of the Convention (infra para. 116), to the effect that the
remedies filed in favor of the alleged victim were not effective and it considers that
there was therefore a violation of Article 7.6 of the Convention, to the detriment of
Maritza Urrutia.
77.
Consequently, the Court declares that the State violated Article 7 of the
American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, to the detriment of Maritza
Urrutia García.
IX
VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 5 AND 1(1)
(RIGHT TO HUMANE TREATMENT AND OBLIGATION TO RESPECT RIGHTS)
AND OF ARTICLES 1 AND 6 OF THE INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION AGAINST
TORTURE
Arguments of the Commission
78.
With regard to the right to humane treatment, the Commission requested the
Court to declare that there had been a violation of Article 5 of the American
Convention in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, and of Articles 1 and 6 of the InterAmerican Convention against Torture, because:
a)
In the declaration acknowledging institutional responsibility, the State
accepted the facts that gave rise to the instant case, so that it accepted: that
the “treatment to which the [alleged] victim was subjected during her
detention was equivalent to torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment”; that Maritza Urrutia remained incommunicado for eight days; and
that she was kept handcuffed to a bed, with a hood on her head, in a room
where the light was kept on and also the radio at full volume:
b)
During her arbitrary detention, Maritza Urrutia was deliberately
subjected to psychological torture arising from the threat and continual
possibility of being assassinated, physically tortured or raped, of losing her
young son, and that violent acts would be carried out against her family; in
addition to the application, by military intelligence agents, of methods tending
to obliterate or diminish her personality, such as sleep deprivation, exposure
to constant noise, incessant interrogation and recordings;
c)
The methods employed by the State agents were intended to break the
physical and psychological resistance of the alleged victim, in order to extract
information on the organization of which she was a member and force her to
issue a statement; and
d)
In the terms of the international norms prohibiting torture, this can be
either physical or psychological.
Arguments of the representatives of the alleged victim