proposed by the Commission were received during the hearing, as was the recognition by the State of its international responsibility in this case. 11. Final written arguments and observations. – On March 1, 2021, the State, the representative and the Commission submitted their respective final written arguments and observations. The State also attached annexes to its document. At the instructions of the President of the Court, the representative and the Commission were offered the opportunity to submit the considerations that they deemed relevant regarding the annexes. On March 17, 2021, the representative submitted its observations. The Commission did not comment on the matter (infra para. 34). 12. Deliberation of the present case. – The Court deliberated this Judgment in a virtual session held on September 1, 2021.6 III JURISDICTION 13. The Court has jurisdiction to hear this case, pursuant to Article 62(3) of the Convention, because Ecuador ratified the American Convention on Human Rights on December 28, 1977 and accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on July 24, 1984. It ratified the InterAmerican Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons on July 27, 2006.7 IV RECOGNITION OF INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY A. Recognition of responsibility by the State and observations of the Commission and of the representative 14. The State, in the public hearing held January 27-28, 2021 and in its final written arguments, recognized its international responsibility in this case. It, thus, withdrew its preliminary objection, accepted the facts “as they were described by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in its Merits Report” and accepted the claims contained in the Commission’s brief of submission. 15. The State indicated that it agreed with the analysis of the Inter-American Commission in the sense that Mr. Garzón Guzmán was a disappeared person and that this fact and the response of the national authorities were incompatible with the inter-American standards and violated Articles 3, 4(1), 5(1), 5(2) and 7 of the American Convention on Human Rights, in relation to Article 1(1) thereof, and Article I(a) and (b) of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons for the violations that have occurred since its entry into force, to the detriment of Mr. Garzón Guzmán. It also accepted that, 30 years after his disappearance, the investigation continues in its first stages without having clarified the circumstances of the crime, determined the whereabouts of the victim, and punished those responsible, has greatly exceeded the time that could be deemed reasonable and has infringed Vice President; Marisol Blanchard, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Jorge Meza Flores and Christian Gonzalez, Advisors; b) for the representative of the alleged victims: César Duque, and c) for the State: María Fernanda Álvarez, Magda Aspirot and Alonso Fonseca. Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this Judgment was deliberated and adopted at the 143rd Regular Session of the Court. which was held using technological means, in accordance with the Rules of the Court. 6 Ecuador ratified the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons on July 27, 2006. This treaty entered into force for the State on August 26, 2006, pursuant to its Article XX. 7 5