12 65. On December 20, 2000 the State complied with the request made by the Court in the Order mentioned in the previous paragraph, by providing a copy of the General framework, Executive summary and Final Report of the document “Diagnostic study of land tenure in the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast”, prepared by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council (infra paras. 80 and 96). 66. On January 29, 2001, the Commission submitted a note together with three documents: comments by Theodore Macdonald on January 20, 2001, and comments by Charles Rice Hale on January 7, 2001, both in connection with the ethnographic expert opinion by Ramiro García Vásquez on the document prepared by Theodore Macdonald, “Awas Tingni an Ethnographic Study of the Community and its Territory” (infra paras. 81 and 97); and a copy of the document “Awas Tingni an Ethnographic Study of the Community and its Territory. 1999 Report”. 67. On June 21, 2001, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President, granted the Commission and the State up to July 23 of that year to submit their final written arguments. On July 3, 2001, the Commission requested an extension until August 10 of that same year to submit its brief. On July 6, 2001, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President, informed the Commission and the State that the extension requested had been granted. 68. In its July 31, 2001 note, the Secretariat, following instructions by the President and pursuant to article 44 of the Rules of Procedure, requested that the Commission submit the documentary evidence and pleadings to substantiate the request for payment of reparations, costs and expenses submitted by the Commission in the point on petitions in its lawsuit (supra para. 4), no later than August 10, 2001. 69. On July 31, 2001 the Secretariat, following instructions by the Court and in accordance with article 44 of the Rules of Procedure, granted Nicaragua up to August 13, 2001 to supply, as evidence to facilitate the adjudication of the case, the following documents: existing title deeds of the Awas Tingni Community (Mayagna Community); of the Ten Communities (Miskita Community); of the Tasba Raya Indigenous Community (also known as the Six Communities), which includes the communities of Miguel Bikan, Wisconsin, Esperanza, Francia Sirpi, Santa Clara and Tasba Pain (Miskito Communities) and of the Karatá Indigenous Community (Miskito Community). These documents were not submitted to the Court. 70. On August 8, 2001, the State objected to the parties being granted the possibility of submitting final written arguments and requested that, in case the Court decided to proceed with the admission of those pleadings, the State be granted an extension up to September 10, 2001, to submit them. The following day, the Secretariat, under instructions by the President, informed the State that it had been a constant and uniform practice at the Court to grant the parties the opportunity to submit final written arguments, taken to be a summary of the positions stated by the parties at the public hearing on the merits, in the understanding that said briefs were not subject to additional contradictory comments by the parties. In connection with the request for an extension of the period for the State to submit its final pleadings, the Secretariat expressed that, following instructions by the President, given the time allotted to the parties to submit their final written arguments, and so as to avoid impairing the balance which the Court must maintain in protecting human rights, legal certainty and procedural equity, an unpostponable period up to August 17, 2001, was granted to both parties.

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