4 I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND THE CAUSE OF ACTION 1. The case submitted to the Court. On September 21, 2016, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter also “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the case of Coc Max et al. (Xamán Massacre) against the Republic of Guatemala (hereinafter also “the State” or “Guatemala”). According to the Commission, the case concerns the alleged “massacre” by members of the Armed Forces of Guatemala, on October 5, 1995, of 11 persons, including a young girl and two young boys, who were members of the q'eqchi', mam, q'anjob'al, ixil and k'iche indigenous peoples who lived on the Xamán finca (a communal farm in this case), after having been “refugees” in Mexico. The Commission stated that 29 persons were also injured in the attack, three of whom later died. Although 14 persons were tried and convicted, this case concerns the alleged lack of an independent and impartial investigation that, within a reasonable time, would have had the purpose of punishing all the persons responsible. Finally, the Commission determined that the incident also affected 59 family members of the deceased and the injured persons and claimed that it was a racially discriminatory act against the Mayan people during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala (hereinafter also ”the conflict” or “the armed conflict”). The names of those persons may be found in Annex A of this judgment, which forms part of it. 2. The following proceedings took place before the Commission: a) Petition. On November 16, 1995, the Commission received the initial petition presented by Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Eduardo Antonio Salerno and María Lopez Funes, which was assigned Case No. 11,550. Subsequently, the Mutual Support Group (hereinafter also “the GAM” or “the representative”) became the petitioner. b) Report on Admissibility and on the Merits. On December 18, 2002, the Commission notified the parties of its decision to defer examination of the petition’s admissibility until it had decided on its merits, pursuant to Article 37(3) of the Rules then in force. After receiving several briefs and after a friendly settlement procedure that was not successful, on June 10, 2016 the Commission adopted its Report on Admissibility and the Merits No. 28/16 (hereinafter “Report on the Merits” or “Merits Report”), in which it reached a series of conclusions and made various recommendations to Guatemala. i) Conclusion. The Commission concluded that Guatemala is internationally responsible for violating the rights to life, to personal integrity, to judicial guarantees, of the child, to equality before the law and to judicial protection recognized, respectively, in Articles 4(1), 5(1), 8(1), 19, 24 and 25(1) of the American Convention, read in conjunction with the obligations established in Article 1(1) thereof. ii) Recommendations. The Commission, therefore, recommended that the State: a) “Provide comprehensive reparation for the human rights violations declared in [the Merits Report] in the material, moral, and cultural dimensions, including (i) just compensation; (ii) measures of satisfaction to commemorate the victims and publicly acknowledge the State’s responsibility for the events, and (iii) rehabilitation measures by implementing a program of culturally appropriate physical and mental and/or psychological health care for the survivors and next of kin of the victims” and