instruments that pertain to the body of law (corpus juris) relating to the rights of persons with disabilities when applicable. B. Admissibility Requirements 1. Exhaustion of domestic remedies 21. Article 46(1)(a) of the American Convention provides that admission of petitions lodged with the Inter-American Commission alleging violation of the Convention shall be subject to the requirement that the remedies under domestic law have been pursued and exhausted in accordance with generally recognized principles of international law. This rule is designed to allow national authorities to examine alleged violations of protected rights and, as appropriate, to resolve them before they are taken up in an international proceeding. 22. With regard to the exhaustion of domestic remedies, the petitioner argues that in the instant case the objection contemplated in Article 46(2)(c) of the American Convention is applicable, given that the proceedings as a whole have gone on for more than 11 years. According to the latest information provided by the petitioner regarding the criminal proceedings, confirmation of definitive dismissal is still pending. 23. In the present petition, the Inter-American Commission notes that the facts occurred on November 13, 1993 and that the criminal proceedings, specifically in respect of its investigative phase, lasted more than 11 years. On July 20, 2004, the Court of the Third Western Section upheld the provisional dismissal issued on May 19, 2004, in the court of first instance. Here, the Commission observes that, in accordance with Salvadoran legislation (Articles 31 and 350-352 of the Code of Criminal Procedure) the criminal action prescribes if one year elapses following issuance of the provisional dismissal without the prosecutor involved requesting a reopening of the investigations. The petitioner has reiterated that, following the upholding of the provisional dismissal, no progress has been made with the investigation of his case. 24. Accordingly, the Commission notes that, according to the information in the file, Mr. Aguirre Magaña appears to have pursued all the judicial actions needed to move a criminal investigation forward that was undertaken on account of the deeds of which he is the alleged victim, and that it would be unreasonable on the part of this Commission to require him to exhaust additional remedies. In addition, it transpires from the position of the parties that the criminal proceedings conducted on account of the facts alleged by the petitioner have concluded in accordance with applicable domestic law. Additionally, the Salvadoran State did not provide during the processing of the petition any elements that would enable the IACHR to reach a different conviction, which leads the Commission to conclude that the present petition meets the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies under Article 46(1)(a) of the American Convention on Human Rights. 2. Timeliness of the petition 25. Article 46(1)(b) of the American Convention provides that for a petition to be admissible, it must be presented within six months of the date on which the party alleging violation of rights was notified of the final judgment. In the claim under review, the Inter-American Commission has considered that domestic judicial proceedings reached a definitive end once the one-year period had elapsed since the decision handed down by the Court of the Third Western Section on July 20, 2004, rendering the court of first instance's provisional dismissal resolution enforceable. In light of that consideration, and the fact that the petition before the IACHR was received on July 28, 2005, the Commission considers that the petition was lodged within a reasonable time and that the admissibility requirement regarding the timeliness of its presentation must be deemed met. 3. Duplication and international res judicata 4