submission was due to “the need to obtain justice and reparation for the failure to comply with the recommendations in the Report on the Merits.” 4. Requests of the Commission. – The Commission asked the Court to find and declare that Honduras was internationally responsible for the violations enumerated in the Report on the Merits (supra para. 1) and order the State to extend the measures of reparation requested therein (infra chapter VIII). This Court notes with concern that over 18 years elapsed after the originating petition was lodged with the Commission, before the case was submitted to the Court. II PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT 5. Notification to the State and to the representatives. The State 4 and the representatives of the alleged victims 5 were notified on October 7, 2020, that the case had been submitted to the Court. 6. Brief with pleadings, motions and evidence. – On December 8, 2020, the representatives filed their brief of pleadings, motions and evidence (hereinafter “pleadings and motions brief”), pursuant to Articles 25 and 40 of the Rules of Procedure. The representatives agreed substantially with the Commission, adding further arguments on the merits. They also asked that Honduras be ordered to adopt several measures of reparation additional to those requested by the Commission. 7. Brief of preliminary objections and answering brief. – On March 15, 2021, the State submitted its answering brief to the Commission’s submission and Report on the Merits and to the pleadings and motions brief (hereinafter “answering brief”). Honduras submitted two preliminary objections in this brief and challenged the alleged violations. It also stated that it “would refrain from responding to each separate applicable measure of reparation, which could be addressed later in the event of a friendly settlement.” 8. Public hearing. – The President of the Court issued an order on March 31, 2022, 6 convening the parties and the Commission to a public hearing on the preliminary objections and possible merits, reparations, and costs, to take place on May 10 and 11, 2022, at the seat of the Court in Costa Rica, during the Court’s 148th regular session. 7 The State submitted a recognition of responsibility at the hearing (infra chapter IV). Vera, then-specialist and current Assistant Secretary of the Commission Jorge Meza Flores, and Erick Acuña, specialist with the Commission’s Executive Secretariat. 4 The State’s designated agents for the case were Lidia Estela Cardona Padilla, then-Public Prosecutor of Honduras, and Jacobo Cálix Hernández and Nelson Gerardo Melina Flores, staff attorneys in the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Honduras. The State sent a request on March 30, 2022, to update its roster of agents in the case, designating Manuel Antonio Díaz Galeas, Public Prosecutor of Honduras, Tomás Emilio Andrade Rodas, Assistant Public Prosecutor of Honduras, and Nelson Gerardo Molina Flores and Jacobo Calix Hernández, staff attorneys with the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Honduras. 5 The alleged victims were represented by the Committee of Families of the Detained/Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Alba Luz Deras García, Irma Isabel Deras García, Luis Rolando Deras García, Otilia Flores Ortiz, Herminio Deras Flores and Lorena Deras Flores. 6 Cf. Case of Deras García et al. v. Honduras. Notice of hearing. Order of the President of the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, March 31, 2022. Available in Spanish at: https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/deras_garcia_y_otros_31_03_22.pdf. 7 The following appeared at the hearing: (a) for the Inter-American Commission: Carlos Bernal Pulido, Commissioner; Jorge Meza Flores, Assistant Executive Secretary; and Carla Leiva and Ignacio Bollier, advisors; (b) for the representatives: Berta Oliva de Nativí, Dora Emperatriz Oliva, Meri Agurcia, Elisa Quiroz, Jimena Reyes, Lorena Deras