Caracazo v. Venezuela
Legal Relevance
Keywords: Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Reparations | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection
Themes: Memory and Reparations | Justice and Truth | Related Crimes
The State fully acknowledged international responsibility regarding its obligation to respect the rights to life, personal integrity, personal liberty, judicial guarantees and judicial protection; and its duty to adopt domestic law provisions, which the Court accepted. Among the measures of reparation, the Court ruled that the State must locate, exhume, and identify the remains of the victims through the use of suitable techniques and instruments, and hand them over to their relatives. The Court found that the cost of the burial of the remains, in the place chosen by the next of kin, should be borne by the State.
Judgment Date
November 11, 1999
Country
Venezuela
Judicial Body
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Articles violated
Article 1(1) [ACHR], Article 2 [ACHR], Article 4(1) [ACHR], Article 5 [ACHR], Article 7 [ACHR], Article 8(1) [ACHR], Article 25(1) [ACHR], Article 25(2)(a) [ACHR], Article 27(3) [ACHR]
Facts of the Case
After riots in Caracas following the temporary suspension of individual guarantees by the Executive, the military forces caused 44 deaths mainly by indiscriminate shootings, as well as by extrajudicial executions. Despite the fact that exhumations had already taken place, no progress had been made in the investigation and identification of victims.