3 represented by the Regional Council and that, as the latter had approved the concession, it was valid; j) on March 21, 1996, the Community leaders submitted a request to the plenary session of the Regional Council for assistance to demarcate their ancestral lands and detain the advance of the concession granted without the consent of the communities; k) on March 22, 1996, the Board of Directors of the Regional Council indicated to the Community’s lawyers that the resolution that it had adopted on June 25 (sic) was subject to ratification by the plenary session of the Regional Council, that this ratification had not taken place and that the Board of Directors itself had not granted, nor would it grant, the consent required for a concession; l) on March 29, 1996, two members of the RAAN Regional Council filed an application for amparo against the concession to SOLCARSA before the Supreme Court. This action was initiated on the grounds that the concession was not valid because it had not been approved by the plenary session of the Regional Council, as required by Article 181 of the Nicaraguan Constitution. On February 27, 1997, the Supreme Court of Justice pronounced itself in favor of this application and declared the concession unconstitutional; m) subsequently, State officials took steps to submit the concession to the approval of the RAAN Regional Council. On October 8, 1997, the majority of the Council voted in favor of the concession. Due to this, on November 7, 1997, the Community filed a second application for amparo, this time against “the members” of the Board of Directors who had voted in favor of the concession initially and “the members” who, on October 8, 1997, formed the majority of the Regional Council and approved the said concession. In this recourse, the Community denounced the said members for having approved the concession without having considered the rights of the indigenous communities, although it had made a formal request to the Regional Council in this respect; n) on November 12, 1997, the Matagalpa Appeals Tribunal admitted the second application for amparo, ordered that the respondents be notified that they should submit their reports to the Supreme Court of Justice and rejected the Community’s request that the concession to SOLACARSA be suspended immediately; o) on February 12, 1998, the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua issued an order that the judgment of February, 1997, in favor of the members of the RAAN Regional Council who had filed the above-mentioned application for amparo(supra l), should be executed. III PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 3. On October 2, 1995, the Secretariat of the Commission received a petition lodged by Jaime Castillo Felipe, principal leader of the Community, in his own name and on behalf of the Community