2 American law, namely, to conduct expropriation procedures, to ensure no impact on the survival of the indigenous communities, to conduct prior, free and informed consultations, to conduct prior social and environmental impact assessments, and to grant participation in the benefits derived from the works and the concession. Furthermore, (e) the State of Argentina violated the territorial rights of the petitioner indigenous communities, in having failed to exercise the required due diligence to control the deforestation of the ancestral territory by illegal loggers. 6. Consequently, the Commission establishes that for the foregoing reasons, the State of Argentina violated Articles 21, 13, 23, 8 and 25 of the American Convention, in relation to the obligations established in Articles 1.1 and 2 of the Convention; it declares that such violations have been partially repaired; and it issues recommendations to redress the violations and ensure non-repetition. 7. On the other hand, the Commission concludes that it has not been proven in the present case that the State of Argentina violated the right to participation regarding the claims of deliberate weakening of the Association by the State. II. PROCEDURE BEFORE THE COMMISSION 8. On August 4, 1998, the IACHR received the initial petition, presented by the “Lhaka Honhat” Association of Aboriginal Communities, with the support of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), in representation of the indigenous communities that form part of the Association, against the Republic of Argentina. On December 29, 1998, the IACHR received additional information from the petitioners. On January 26, 1999, the IACHR transmitted the pertinent parts of the petition to the Government of Argentina, requesting it to submit information. On July 7, 1999, the IACHR received the State of Argentina’s response to the petition. The text of the response, together with its supporting documentation, was communicated to the petitioners on July 29, 1999. 9. On October 21, 2006, the IACHR approved Admissibility Report No. 78/06, in which it declared the petition admissible as regards the alleged violations of the rights protected in Articles 8(1), 13 in connection with 23, 21 and 25 of the American Convention, in relation to the general obligations established in Articles 1 and 2 of said instrument. th 10. The petitioners submitted their brief with observations on the merits on January 4 , 2007, and it was transmitted by the IACHR to the State through a note dated January 12, 2007. 11. The IACHR received an Amicus Curiae brief in the course of the present process, submitted by the Human Rights Clinic of the Masters Degree in Fundamental Rights of the Carlos III rd University of Madrid. It was received on July 3 , 2007, and communicated to both parties by the IACHR on August 23, 2007. 12. After the admissibility report, several working meetings were held in Argentina between both parties. On March 11, 2008, a working meeting was held at the headquarters of the Commission with representatives of the State and the petitioners and on November 2, 2009, a public hearing was held 2 in which the Federal Government asked the Commission to issue the merits report . III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES A. Positions of the petitioners Arguments related to the territorial property of the indigenous peoples of Fiscal Lots 55 and 14 of the Salta Province 2 Minutes of the public hearing held on November 2, 2009 at the headquarters of the Commission with representatives of the State and the petitioners.