5 prerogatives of the State to investigate and sanction. Lastly, based on the preceding considerations, the State requests that the Commission declare the petition inadmissible. IV. ANÁLYSIS OF COMPETENCE AND ADMISSIBILITY A. Competence 23. The petitioners are authorized by Article 44 of the American Convention to lodge petitions with the Commission. The petition identifies an individual as the alleged victim with respect to whom the Ecuadorian State has undertaken the commitment to respect and guarantee the rights enshrined in the American Convention. With regard to the State, the Commission points out that Ecuador is a State Party to the American Convention since December 28, 1977, the date it deposited its instrument of ratification. Therefore, the Commission has competence ratione personae to examine the petition. 24. The Commission also is competent ratione loci to hear the petition given that it contains allegations of violations of rights protected under the American Convention that presumably took place within Ecuadorian jurisdiction, a State Party to that treaty. The Commission is competent ratione temporis to examine the claim since the obligation to respect and guarantee rights protected under the American Convention was already in force for the State at the time in which the facts alleged in the petition occurred. Exercising its competence iura novit curia, the Commission also takes into account that Ecuador deposited its instrument of ratification of the InterAmerican Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons (hereinafter, “Convention on Forced Disappearance”) on July 27, 2006, and, therefore, the Commission has competence ratione temporis with regard to the obligation established in Article I(b) of the Convention given the continuous nature of the absence of clarification regarding the alleged crime of forced disappearance. 25. Lastly, the Commission is competent ratione materiae, because the petition alleges possible violations of human rights protected under the American Convention. B. Admissibility requirements 1. Exhaustion of domestic remedies 26. Article 46(1)(a) of the American Convention requires the prior exhaustion of domestic remedies within the national jurisdiction, in accordance with generally recognized principles on international law, in order for a complaint alleging presumed violations of the American Convention to be admitted. Under the provisions of Article 46(2) of the Convention, the requirement of prior exhaustion of domestic remedies does not apply when: a) b) c) 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; the alleged victim of rights violations did not have access to the remedies under domestic law or was prevented from exhausting them; and there has been unwarranted delay in rendering a decision on those remedies. Under the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the IACHR, when a petitioner claims one of the exceptions to meeting the requirement established in this Article, it is up to the State concerned to