4
citizen security, but that to the contrary it is an essential element for their attainment. In
this regard, in the Report on Citizen Security and Human Rights, the Commission indicated:
Most prison institutions in the region are today a breeding ground for the
violence with which the societies in the Hemisphere are coping. In the
Commission’s view, the priorities of the public policies that the member
States of the region put into practice for citizen security should be
measures to prevent violence and crime in the three generally accepted
categories: (1) primary prevention, which are measures directed at the
entire population, and have to do with programs in public health,
education, employment and instruction in observance of human rights
and building a democratic citizenry; (2) secondary prevention, which
involves measures that focus on individuals or groups who are more
vulnerable to violence and crime, using targeted programs to reduce the
risk factors and open up social opportunities; and (3) tertiary prevention,
which involves individualized measures directed at persons already
engaged in criminal conduct, who are serving a sentence or have recently
completed their sentence. Particularly important here are the programs
9
that target persons serving prison sentences.
11.
A prison system that operates adequately is necessary for ensuring the
security of the citizenry and sound administration of justice. When the prisons do not
receive needed attention or resources, their operations become distorted, and instead of
providing protection they become schools of crime and antisocial behavior that foster
recidivism instead of rehabilitation. 10
12.
As for its content, this report is organized into six chapters in which the
IACHR refers to those issues that are considered the most serious and widespread in the
region, those that affect more strongly the fundamental rights of the of the persons
deprived of liberty as a whole. While acknowledging that this reality also includes other
elements and thus other issues of great importance that are not directly addressed at this
time, they will be analyzed in subsequent thematic reports.
13.
Chapter II, which relates to The guarantor role of the State before the
persons deprived of liberty, departs from the fundamental idea that when the State
deprives a person from his/her freedom, it assumes a special responsibility from which
specific duties of respect and guarantee of their rights derive, and from which a strong
presumption of international responsibility arises with regard to the damage people suffer
while under its custody.
14.
In this sense, it is clearly established that the first duty of the State as
guarantor of the persons under its custody, is the duty to exercise effective control and
9
IACHR, Report on Citizen Security and Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 57, adopted on December
31 2009, (hereinafter “Report on Citizen Security and Human Rights”), para. 155.
10
IACHR, Fifth Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala, Ch. VIII, paras. 68 and 69.
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