Chapter 3 • The Major Regional Human Rights Instruments and the Mechanisms for Their Implementation As to the issue of prevention, the Court specified that “the State has a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent human rights violations and to use the means at its disposal to carry out a serious investigation of violations committed within its jurisdiction, to identify those responsible, to impose the appropriate punishment and to ensure the victim adequate compensation”.17 This legal duty to prevent human rights violations would moreover include “all those means of a legal, political, administrative and cultural nature that promote the protection of human rights and ensure that any violations are considered and treated as illegal acts, which, as such, may lead to the punishment of those responsible and the obligation to indemnify the victims for damages”.18 As defined by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the legal duty of the States parties to the Convention to “respect” and to “ensure” is multi-faceted and goes to the very heart of the entire State structure, including the particular conduct of the Governments themselves. A more comprehensive analysis of States’ duties to prevent, investigate, punish and remedy human rights violations is contained in Chapter 15 of this Manual. The legal obligation to “ensure” the rights and freedoms contained in the American Convention on Human Rights means that the States parties must prevent, investigate and punish human rights violations and that they must, if possible, restore the rights violated, and provide compensation as warranted for damages. 3.1.2 The rights recognized As to the civil and political rights guaranteed by the Convention, they comprise the following: v the right to juridical personality – art. 3; v the right to life, including careful regulation of the death penalty from an abolitionist perspective – art. 4; v the right to humane treatment, including freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – art. 5; v freedom from slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour – art. 6; v the right to personal liberty and security, including freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention – art. 7; v the right to a fair trial – art. 8; v the right to freedom from ex post facto laws – art. 9; v the right to compensation in the event of a miscarriage of justice – art. 10; 17 Ibid., p. 155, para. 174. 18 Ibid., para. 175. 82 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers