12. Amici curiae. The Court received five amici curiae briefs presented: (1) by the Research Group on Transitional Justice and the Right to Truth and to Remembrance at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Río Grande do Sur (PUC-RS), 9 on the right to the truth and on the setbacks in the process of transitional justice in Brazil; (2) jointly, by the Human Rights and Environmental Law Clinic of the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas and the Research Group on Human Rights in Amazonia, 10 on the non-compliance with the Convention of the amnesty laws promulgated during the transition periods following the Latin American dictatorships, which prevented obtaining the truth and justice in cases of gross and systematic human rights violations; (3) the Center for Studies on International Human Rights Systems at the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), 11 on the right to the truth; (4) the Article 19 Organization, 12 on the serious violations of the right to freedom of expression in its collective dimension, and (5) the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico, 13 on the standards for the protection of journalists, with special emphasis on the chilling effect of threats and physical violence against journalists. 13. Final written arguments and observations. On June 26, 2017, the representatives and the State forwarded their respective final written arguments with annexes, and the Commission presented its final written observations. 14. Observations of the parties and the Commission. On June 27, 2017, the Court’s Secretariat forwarded the annexes to the representatives’ final written arguments to the State and the Commission and asked them to remit any observations they deemed pertinent. In a communication of July 12, 2017, the State sent the observations requested. The Commission did not present observations. 15. Disbursements from the Legal Assistance Fund. On November 6, 2017, on the instructions of the acting President of the Court, the Secretariat submitted to the State information on the disbursements made in application of the Victim’s Legal Assistance Fund in this case and, as established in Article 5 of the Court’s Rules for the Operation of the Fund, granted it a specific time for presenting any observations it deemed pertinent. The State presented its observations in a brief of November 30, 2017, within the accorded time. 16. Deliberation of this case. The Court began the deliberation of this judgment on March 15, 2018. III. JURISDICTION 17. The Inter-American Court has jurisdiction to hear this case, in the terms of Article 62(3) of the Convention, because Brazil has been a State Party to the American Convention since September 25, 1992, and accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on December 10, 1998. The brief was signed by José Carlos Moreira da Silva Filho, Camila Tamanquevis dos Santos, Caroline Ramos, Sofia Bordin Rolim, Andressa de Bittencourt Siqueira da Silva, Ivonei Souza Trinidades, Letícia Vieira Magalhães and Marília Benvenuto. 9 The brief was signed by Sílvia Maria da Silveira Loureiro, Pedro José Calafate Villa Simões, Emerson Victor Hugo Costa De Sá, Marcelo Phillipe Aguiar Martins, Eduardo Araujo Pereira Junior, Jamilly Izabela de Brito Silva, Breno Matheus Barrozo de Miranda, Caio Henrique Faustino da Silva, Érika Guedes De Sousa Lima and Victoria Braga Brasil. 10 11 The brief was signed by Melina Girardi Fachin. 12 The brief was signed by Paula Martins, Camila Marques, Carolina Martins and Raissa Maia. 13 The brief was signed by Luis Raúl González Pérez. 6