IACHR brings case before IA Court on enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution following coup d’état in Chile

December 4, 2025

Washington, DC—On August 27, 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) submitted Case No. 13.859—Ernesto Yoliztly Lejderman, Bernardo Mario Lejderman Konujowska, and María del Rosario Ávalos Castañeda—to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IA Court). The case concerns Chile’s international responsibility for the enforced disappearance of Bernardo Mario Lejderman Konujowska and María del Rosario Ávalos Castañeda and the lack of access to justice and truth in relation to these events.

The petition, presented to the IACHR in 2009, concerns the killing of Bernardo Lejderman and María del Rosario Ávalos by military agents in Chile in December 1973, following the coup d’état, while they were attempting to flee to Argentina with their infant son, Ernesto Lejderman. The child was kidnapped and placed in a religious institution before being reunited with his grandparents in Buenos Aires. The couple’s bodies were buried clandestinely; Bernardo Lejderman’s remains were missing until 1990, while María del Rosario Ávalos’s body was exhumed in 1974 and transferred to the General Cemetery of Santiago—information her family did not learn until 2005.

For years, the family’s attempts to bring these violations to justice were dismissed or sent to military courts that applied the 1978 Amnesty Law. Although a criminal court convicted three individuals of homicide in 2007, the Supreme Court reduced the sentences in 2009 through the application of a partial statute of limitations. It also revoked a compensation measure that had been ordered. Ernesto Lejderman obtained a civil judicial reparation in 2018 and received administrative compensation payments between 1991 and 2022.

In Merits Report No. 192/93, the IACHR established that the deaths of Bernardo Lejderman and María del Rosario Ávalos were extrajudicial executions, as the lethal force used by the military agents was unjustified, disproportionate, and served no legitimate purpose, occurring as it did in the broader context of widespread state repression under the dictatorship. The IACHR also concluded that both cases constituted enforced disappearance, given that the victims were deprived of their freedom, the direct involvement of state agents, and the prolonged refusal of the State to disclose the whereabouts of their remains.

The IACHR also determined that the judicial proceedings were marred by undue delays, as more than thirty years passed without a conviction, with no justification from the State. The initial decision to transfer the case to the military jurisdiction, the application of the 1978 Amnesty Law, and later the reduction of sentences through the application of a partial statute of limitations all contributed to patterns of impunity that contravene international standards.

Finally, the IACHR emphasized the profound impact that these events have had on the couple’s son, Ernesto Lejderman, who was separated from his parents, exposed to risks affecting his physical, emotional, and social development and causing deep psychological and moral suffering due to the loss of his parents, the concealment of the truth, and the prolonged judicial process.

Based on these findings, the IACHR concluded that the State of Chile is responsible for violating the rights to recognition as a person before the law, life, personal integrity, and personal liberty enshrined in articles 3, 4.1, 5.1, and 7.1 of the American Convention, in relation to article 1.1, to the detriment of María del Rosario Ávalos.

It also determined that the State is responsible for violating the rights to personal integrity, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection set out in articles 5.1, 8.1, and 25 of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1.1, as well as articles I and III of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, to the detriment of Ernesto Yoliztly Lejderman Ávalos, due to the harm established in the Merits Report as a result of the disappearance and execution of his parents, Bernardo Mario Lejderman Konujowska and María del Rosario Ávalos Castañeda.

In light of these findings, the IACHR asked the IA Court to order the following measures of reparation:

1. Provide full reparation for the violations listed above, including fair compensation and measures of satisfaction to be agreed upon with Ernesto Yoliztly Lejderman Ávalos.
2. Ensure access to physical and mental health care for his rehabilitation, according to his wishes and in consultation with him.
3. Adopt measures to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that applied the partial statute of limitation and issue a new ruling that establishes appropriate sanctions for those responsible for these violations, without applying the partial statute of limitation.
4. Implement guarantees of nonrepetition, including legal reforms to prevent the application of the partial statute of limitation in cases of serious human rights violations, and ensure compliance with inter-American human rights standards while these reforms are carried out.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 253/25

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