9 6. It acknowledge[d] its international responsibility for the violation of Articles 13(1), 13(2)(a), 13(3), 2[3](1)(a), (b) and (c) of the American Convention, to the detriment of Jorge Carpio Nicolle.10 7. The State’s representatives, aware that the Court is now empowered to take a decision with regard to individual responsibilities, […] put on record, owing to the political and juridical implications that this could have in the domestic legal system, that the acknowledgement of international responsibility it had made did not preclude the consideration or determination of possible criminal responsibilities in this case. 8. The State acknowledged its responsibility for having complied partially with the provisional measures requested and ordered, but undert[ook] to make such measures effective, when it ha[d] created the Coordination Unit for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Justice Administrators and Agents, and Journalists, of the Presidential Human Rights Commission, whose purpose was to draw up a list of measures in order to standardize them; and, to this end, taking advantage of the presence of the members of the Commission, it requested the latter’s advisory services through the respective Unit of the Commission. 9. It request[ed] the Court, in the context of the contentious proceeding, to obviate the hearing on merits and to continue on to establishing the corresponding measures of reparation, in order to discuss and argue the claims submitted by the Commission and the representatives of the alleged victims. Consequently, it requested that the nature of the hearing be changed, so that it would be circumscribed to examining and determining the reparations and, for reasons of procedural economy, only those witnesses and expert witnesses who would refer to that issue would be convened, without detriment to respect for the right of the victims to present their testimony publicly before the Court. 39. Furthermore, during this public hearing, the State apologized and expressed “its profound respect and consideration for the victims and their next of kin” and acknowledged “the atrocities that had occurred in the country and the errors that the Guatemalan State had committed in the past.” 40. In response to questions posed by the Court, Guatemala stated that the acknowledgement of responsibility was total as regards the facts contained in the application and in the requests and arguments brief, without detriment to the contents of paragraph 7 of its own brief (supra para. 38). Regarding this paragraph, the State clarified that it was based on considerations of domestic law relating to the investigation into the facts that would be conducted in the domestic jurisdiction, because it did not want to prejudge the result of the criminal investigation, so as not to violate the right to presumption of innocence. The State indicated that this did not mean that it did not acknowledge its international responsibility deriving from the facts of the case and its responsibility to provide justice within the domestic legal system. 41. The Commission stated, inter alia, that it considered positively the State’s declaration acknowledging its international responsibility for the violation of Articles 4, 5, 8, 13, 19 and 25 of the Convention, as alleged in the application, and also of Article 23 thereof, alleged in the requests and arguments brief. In this regard, the Commission requested the Court to determine the effects of the State’s acknowledgement of responsibility, in accordance with Article 53(2) of the Rules of Procedure, to conclude the merits stage, and to commence the proceeding to determine the pertinent reparations. 42. The representatives also accepted the State’s acknowledgement of international responsibility. Consequently, they requested the Court to deliver 10 During the public hearing, the State made a clarification regarding a typing error in the sixth paragraph of its brief, to the effect that it should read a violation of Article 23 and not Article 25 of the American Convention, since the latter is included in the fifth paragraph of this brief.