2 1. On January 19, 1995 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter "the Commission" or "the Inter-American Commission") submitted to the Court an application against the Republic of Guatemala (hereinafter "the State" or "Guatemala") which originated in a petition (No. 10.154) received at the Secretariat of the Commission on February 10, 1988. In its application, the Commission invoked Articles 50 and 51 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter "the Convention" or "the American Convention") and Articles 26 et seq. of the Rules of Procedure then in force2. The Commission submitted this case for the Court to rule on whether Guatemala had violated the Convention by the "acts of abduction, arbitrary detention, inhuman treatment, torture and murder committed by agents of the State of Guatemala against eleven victims" during 1987 and 1988 (known as the "white van case" because that type of vehicle was part of the modus operandi). Consequently, the Commission requested the Court to rule that Guatemala violated the following provisions: Article 4 of the American Convention (Right to Life) to the detriment of the following victims: Ana Elizabeth Paniagua-Morales, Julián Salomón Gómez-Ayala, William Otilio González-Rivera, Pablo Corado-Barrientos, Manuel de Jesús González-López and Erik Leonardo Chinchilla. Articles 5 (Right to Humane Treatment), 7 (Right to Personal Liberty) of the American Convention, and the obligations established in Articles 1, 6 and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, to the detriment of Ana Elizabeth PaniaguaMorales, Julián Salomón Gómez-Ayala, William Otilio González-Rivera, Pablo CoradoBarrientos, Manuel de Jesús González-López, Augusto Angárita-Ramírez, Doris Torres-Gil, José Antonio Montenegro, Oscar Vásquez and Marco Antonio Montes-Letona. Articles 8 (Right to a Fair Trial) and 25 (Right to Judicial Protection) of the Convention, which were, and continue to be, violated to the detriment of all the victims in this case. Article 1(1) (Obligation to Respect Rights) as a consequence of the aforementioned failure to provide the guarantees enshrined in the Convention. The Commission also asked the Court to require that the State identify and punish those responsible for the above-mentioned violations, compensate the victims of those violations pursuant to Article 63(1) of the Convention, pay them or their relatives the costs and expenses incurred by them in bringing this case before the Commission and the Court, and pay a reasonable sum for attorneys’ fees. II JURISDICTION OF THE COURT 2. The Court is competent to hear the instant case. Guatemala has been a State Party to the Convention since May 25, 1978, accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987, and ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture on January 29, 1987. III PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 3. Case 10.154 was initiated by the Inter-American Commission on the basis of a petition of February 10, 1988, concerning the disappearance of Ana Elizabeth Paniagua-Morales which had occurred the previous day. 2 Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, approved by the Court at its XXIII Regular Session held from January 9 to 18, 1991; amended on January 25 and July 16, 1993.