70 2011 Quebec Journal of International Law (Special Edition) and to the hierarchy of reparation measures which it institutes. Nevertheless, this does not prevent punitive damages which do not necessarily have to take the form of punitive damages, from being considered. In addition to compensatory damages, which aim to compensate the damage suffered by the victim and the victim’s next of kin, in certain circumstances the Inter-American Court’s jurisprudence imposes a different type of reparation which takes the form of a duty to act imposed upon the State. This may be part of the fulfilment of the obligation, suspension and non-fulfilment or part of the reparation of non-pecuniary loss. The Court’s experience shows that States more easily fulfil the obligation to indemnify than the obligation to act. 45 Duties to act may, in fact, be considered to be aimed at two objectives: the compensation of the damage on the one hand, and the punishment of the State on the other. Indeed, in requiring for example that the State names a school after victims of a violation or that it publicly apologises for its violation, the Court seems to go beyond full compensation. According to Antonio A. Cançado Trindade, these types of punitive damages may be considered to be an appropriate response to State crimes. 46

Moreover, in cases where the aim is to cease a violation or prevent its repetition, non-pecuniary damages have, in practice, proved to be more effective and useful. 47 In the

Myrna Mack Chang Case, for example, the Court ordered the State to create an educational grant named the Mack Chang Award, covering the full cost of one year’s anthropological study in a national university. This grant was to be awarded annually. In addition, the State was required to name a street or a public place in a Guatemalan town after the victim, as well as to place a commemorative plaque in an area close to where she died. 48 The Court applied a similar approach in the Gómez-Paquiyauri Brothers Case, in which it required the State to name a school after the two victims and to allocate a full grant for university study to the victims’ sister. 49 These reparations complemented the usual compensation as well as the duty to investigate the disputed facts and to identify and punish the perpetrators of the crime. While the Court tends to resort to this type of reparative measure in cases of grave violations, it does not limit them to cases in which it has established the aggravated responsibility of the State. 50 It is also important to note that, in Inter-American jurisprudence, the theory of aggravated responsibility developed by the Court is difficult to perceive due to the “ home-made” and progressive process that led to its establishment. Indeed, this theory evolved over the course of case law and “ judicial opportunities” and was constructed bit by bit. It was guessed at rather than understood, which reduces its analytical perspectives. However, it makes sense and even though its legal consequences remain uncertain, the influence of criminal law, and in this sense the criminalization of Inter-American human rights law, is amply demonstrated. At this stage, its consequences must be analysed from the perspective of the political role that

45A. A. Cançado Trindade, Separate opinion annexed to the Myrna Mack Chang Case, supra note 32 at para. 47. See also A. A. Cançado Trindade, Separate opinion annexed to the Gómez-Paquiyauri Brothers Case, supra note 34.

46A. A. Cançado Trindade, Separate opinion annexed to the Myrna Mack Chang Case, ibid. at para. 52.

47Ibid. at para. 48.

48Myrna Mack Chang Case, supra note 32 at para. 285-86.

49Gómez-Paquiyauri Brothers Case, supra note 34 at para. 236-37.

50See the comments by A. A. Cançado Trindade, Separate opinion annexed to the Plan de Sánchez Massacre Case, supra note 32.