I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND PURPOSE OF THE DISPUTE 1. The case submitted to the Court. – On June 19, 2020, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter, also “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the case of “Casierra Brothers and family” against the Republic of Ecuador (hereinafter also “ the State,” “the Ecuadorian State,” or “Ecuador”). According to the Commission, the case is related to the alleged international responsibility of the Ecuadorian State for the death of Luis Eduardo Casierra Quiñonez and the injuries caused to Andrés Alejandro Casierra Quiñonez as a result of the use of lethal force by agents of the Ecuadorian Navy in December 1999, as well as the impunity for what occurred. 2. Procedure before the Commission. – The procedure before the Commission was as follows: a) Petition. – On June 27, 2000, Alejandro Ponce Villacís filed the initial petition with the Commission. b) Admissibility Report. – On March 19, 2009, the Commission adopted Admissibility Report No. 16/09, which was notified to the parties on April 1, 2009. c) Merits Report. – On February 12, 2019, the Commission approved Merits Report No. 14/19 (hereinafter also “Merits Report” or “Report No. 14/19”) in which it reached a series of conclusions and made several recommendations to the State. 3. Notification to the State. – The Merits Report was notified to the State on March 19, 2019, granting it two months to report on compliance with the recommendations. The Commission granted four extensions of three months each. On June 5, 2020, Ecuador requested a fifth extension. Upon evaluating said request, the Commission responded that “although the State ha[d] expressed its willingness to comply with […] the recommendations, one year and three months after notification of the [R]eport on Merits ,] it had not yet submitted a proposal for material and non-pecuniary reparations.” Likewise, the Commission mentioned that there was a dispute between the parties regarding health and psychological care, and that “although in recent months the Prosecutor's Office ha[d] carried out several proceedings in the investigation [...], it was still in the preliminary stage.” 4. Submission to the Court. – On June 19, 2020, the Commission submitted this case to the Court, “taking into account the will of the petitioning party and the need to obtain justice and reparation for the [alleged] victims.”1 This Court notes, with concern, that approximately twenty years elapsed between lodging the initial petition to the Commission and submitting the case to the Court. 5. The Commission's requests. – Based on the foregoing, the Commission asked the Court to declare the international responsibility of the Ecuadorian State for the violation of the rights to life, humane treatment, judicial guarantees and judicial protection, enshrined in articles 4(1), 5(1), 8(1) and 25(1) of the American Convention, in relation to articles 1(1) and 2 of said international instrument, to the detriment, respectively, of Luis Eduardo Casierra Quiñonez, Andrés Alejandro Casierra Quiñonez and the following relatives of both: their mother, María Quiñonez Bone; their father, Cipriano Casierra, and their brothers and sister, The Commission appointed as its delegates before the Court the then Commissioner Antonia Urrejola Noguera and the then Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão, and appointed as counsel and legal advisers, respectively, Marisol Blanchard Vera, Deputy Executive Secretary, Jorge Humberto Meza Flores, and Erick Acuña Pereda, attorneys for the Executive Secretariat. 1 4