CED/C/10/D/1/2013 They further consider that such an interpretation of the concept of “victim” violates article 75 (22) of the Argentine Constitution, which provides that “treaties and agreements take precedence over laws”. 5.4 The authors note that, according to the State party, the right of the inhabitants of the Province of Santa Fe to have access to justice is ensured by means of legal aid centres. They consider that this right has not been respected, since those centres have on more than one occasion refused to take on cases involving institutional violence, and that the Defender has systematically been denied standing in cases where he is requested to provide representation to victims intervening in proceedings as private criminal plaintiffs. 5.5 The authors consider that Mr. Yrusta was disappeared while in the hands of the Province of Santa Fe Prison Service for a period of more than seven days after he had requested a transfer from Córdoba to the Province of Santiago del Estero and had been taken, without his consent, to Coronda Prison Facility No. 1 in the Province of Santa Fe. They claim that, in this period of more than seven days, Mr. Yrusta was kept incommunicado from his family. The authors further consider that the premeditated disappearance and concealment of Mr. Yrusta by officials of the State party is demonstrated since, in the prison registers, he is identified under three different names (Roberto Agustín Yrusta, Mario Alejandro Ríos and David Salvador Torres), with the effect that the exact location of Mr. Yrusta in the course of the different phases of his detention cannot be clearly determined. The authors conclude that Mr. Yrusta’s whereabouts were deliberately concealed from his family. 5.6 The authors also point out that the State party fails to mention the articles of the Convention that are invoked in the communication and that, in the 12 months since Mr. Yrusta’s death, the only proceedings that have been initiated by the authorities are those concerning his sisters’ application to be recognized as parties to the prosecution, while no progress has been made in the investigation into the case itself. In this regard, the authors point to the failure to carry out the examinations that were requested in the light of the forensic medical report, which documented the following findings: (a) marks on the neck that are not consistent with the prison administration’s account of how the hanging occurred; and (b) signs of rape and foreign objects in Mr. Yrusta’s anus. The authors consider that the prosecutor and the judge in charge of the case received the forensic medical report but ignored it until Mr. Yrusta’s family asked for clarifications. The authors claim that the family’s request was denied by the judge and the defender in order to conceal the truth and their own negligence in the investigation. 5.7 The authors express their concern about the introduction on 10 February 2014 of a new system for closing cases, pursuant to the new Code of Criminal Procedure (Act No. 12.734) and Provincial Act No. 13.004. Under this system, “cases in which there has been no action of record and in which the victims withdraw from the proceedings shall be closed on a preliminary basis within six months”. 2 Accordingly, the authors consider that, if the 2 See the article of the newspaper La Capital (Rosario), of 23 March 2014: “Hay unas 260 mil causas pendientes de resolver en el viejo sistema penal” (There are some 260,000 cases pending under the old criminal system). Act No. 13.004 states as follows: “Article 7: Applicable rules. The following provisions shall be applicable to all criminal cases initiated prior to the period referred to in article 1 of the present Act, as appropriate: […] (c) With regard to cases in which the accused has not been individually identified, the investigation shall continue for a period not exceeding six months, after which cases shall be closed by a reasoned decision. So far as practicable, the information referred to in the proceedings shall be used as a source of data for criminal analysis. GE.16-05682 7