B. Requirements for the Admissibility of the Petition 1. Exhaustion of domestic remedies 27. Article 46.1.a of the American Convention provides that for a petition alleging a violation of the Convention to be admissible, the petitioner must first have pursued and exhausted domestic remedies, in keeping with generally recognized principles of international law. This requirement is intended to allow national authorities to consider an alleged violation of a protected right and, when applicable, to give them the opportunity to correct it before it is heard and decided by an international body. Article 46.2 of the Convention provides that the rule on the exhaustion of domestic remedies does not apply when: i) the domestic legislation of the state concerned does not afford due process of law for the protection of the right or rights that have allegedly been violated; ii) the party alleging violation of his rights has been denied access to the remedies under domestic law or has been prevented from exhausting them; or iii) there has been unwarranted delay in rendering a final judgment under the aforementioned remedies. 28. The precedents established by the Commission indicate that, with respect to crimes subject to prosecution on the State’s own initiative, the State has the obligation to initiate and pursue the criminal proceedings and that, in such cases, that is the suitable process for establishing the facts, trying the perpetrators, and determining the appropriate penalties in these cases, in addition to making other appropriate means of reparation possible. Under the domestic law, the facts alleged by the petitioners in relation to Santiago Leguizamón Zaván’s murder constitute an offense that must be investigated and prosecuted by the State on its own initiative. 29. The Commission observes that Leguizamón Zaván was murdered on April 26, 1991. Nearly twenty-five years have passed since the murder without the conclusion of an investigation establishing the facts of the case. The IACHR notes that, according to Article 46.2.c of the American Convention, one of the grounds for an exception to the exhaustion of domestic remedies requirement is the “unwarranted delay in rendering a final judgment under the aforementioned remedies.” In the opinion of the Commission, the fact that the investigation remains open and unsolved at this point constitutes an unwarranted delay under the terms of Article 46.2.c of the Convention. 30. Therefore, the Commission concludes that the exception to the exhaustion of domestic remedies provided for in Article 46.2.c of the American Convention applies to this case. 2. Timeliness of the petition 31. In the complaint under examination, the IACHR has determined that the exceptions to the exhaustion of domestic remedies under Article 46.2.c of the American Convention are applicable. Article 32 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission establishes that in cases where those exceptions are applicable, the petition must be filed within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the Commission. To this end, the Commission must consider the date on which the alleged violation of rights took place and the circumstances of each case. 32. The petition before the IACHR was received on January 19, 2007, Santiago Leguizamón Zaván was murdered in April 1991, and the investigation is reportedly ongoing to this day. Given the context and the specific circumstances of this case, the IACHR concludes that the petition was filed within a reasonable period of time, and that the requirement set forth in Article 32.2 of the IACHR’s Rules of Procedure has been met. 3. Duplication of proceedings and international res judicata 33. The case file does not contain any information to indicate that the subject of the petition is pending in another international proceeding, or that it duplicates a petition previously decided by the IACHR or another international body. Hence, the requirements set forth in Articles 46.1.c and 47.d of the Convention have been met. 5