Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Translated by CRIN.
The State of Paraguay has issued a public apology for the murder of child soldier Gerardo Vargas Areco in 1989. The Minister of Defence, General Luis Bareiro Spaini, army, navy and airforce officers, were among the officials present on the border with Brazil – 570km from Asunción in the community of Bella Vista Norte, where his family lives – to recognise their responsibility and to ask forgiveness of the child’s family, as ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in September 2006. Gerardo Vargas Areco was 15 when he was illegally recruited into military service in the armed forces of Paraguay. He was short in the back by his superior. His body also showed signs of torture. The State has fulfilled some of the Court’s orders contained in the judgment but must still carry out “all necessary actions to identify, judge and sanction all those responsible for violations committed in the present case”. The international complaint against the Paraguayan State before the Inter-American Commission and the Court of Human Rights was filed by the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and the Servicio de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) of Paraguay. Further information
As a result of this and other cases affecting child soldiers in Paraguay, the State has been forced to modify its domestic legislation and to deposit a declaration to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, prohibiting the recruitment of children under 18 in the armed forces.