2 1. This case was submitted to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Court”) by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) by note of January 18, 1995, which was received the following day. The case originated with a petition (No. 10.154) against Guatemala lodged with the Secretariat of the Commission on February 10, 1988. 2. In referring the case to the Court, the Commission invoked Articles 50 and 51 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” or the “American Convention”) and Article 26 et seq. of the Rules of Procedure. The Inter-American Commission submitted this case to the Court for a decision as to whether Guatemala was responsible for alleged “acts of kidnapping, arbitrary detention, inhumane treatment, torture, and murder committed by agents of the State of Guatemala against eleven victims” during 1987 and 1988 (the case is also known as the “White Van Case” owing to the use of a vehicle of this type as part of the modus operandi), and for a declaration that Guatemala had violated the following norms: Article 4 of the American Convention (Right to Life) 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), and 7 (Right to Personal Liberty) of the American Convention, and the obligations set forth in Articles 1, 6, and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, to the detriment of Ana Elizabeth Paniagua-Morales, Julián Salomón Gómez-Ayala, William Otilio González-Rivera, Pablo Corado-Barrientos, Manuel de Jesús GonzálezLópez, 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 have been violated and continue to be violated to the detriment of all of the victims in this case. Article 1(1) (Obligation to Respect Rights) as a result of the failure to fulfill the rights set forth in the Convention, as described above. Additionally, the Commission asked the Court to demand that the Government identify and punish those responsible for the violations described above, compensate the victims of those violations in accordance with Article 63(1) of the Convention, and pay the costs and expenses incurred by the victims and their families in processing this case before the Commission and the Court, as well as reasonable honoraria to their lawyers. 3. The Inter-American Commission named as its Delegate, Claudio Grossman, and as its Attorneys, Edith Márquez-Rodríguez, David J. Padilla, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, and Osvaldo Kreimer. In addition, the Commission named as Assistants the following persons who are the legal representatives of the original petitioners: Mark Martel, Viviana Krsticevic, Ariel E. Dulitzky, Marcela Matamoros, Juan Méndez, and José Miguel Vivanco. 4. On January 19, 1995, the Secretariat of the Court (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) acknowledged receipt of the fax from the Commission on the same date on which the Commission submitted the case to the Court. On that date, the Commission acknowledged receipt of the Secretariat's letter and stated that, only for the purpose of registration, the transmission of the application was initiated in its offices before midnight on January 18, 1995 (Costa Rican time, location of the seat of the Court). In a note of January 20 of the same year, the Secretariat of the Commission ratified the terms of the earlier letter and stated that the first page of the application had been received at the Court at “1:52 hours and the last at 3:17 hours (Costa Rican time) on the day of January 19, 1995.” In a letter