7 their brief with pleadings, motions and evidence (hereinafter “pleadings and motions brief”), pursuant to Articles 25 and 40 of the Court’s Rules of Procedure. In said brief they alleged the violation of Articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24 and 25 of the Convention, in conjunction with Article 1(1) thereof, and of Article I of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and Article 7 of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women. In addition, they requested “the inclusion of the list of 97 families,” which was attached. 5. Answering brief. On April 23, 2015, the State submitted to the Court a brief containing preliminary objections, its answer to the submission of the case by the Commission and observations to the pleadings and motions brief (hereinafter “answering brief”). In this brief it presented four preliminary objections. On October 23, 2015, the State appointed as its agents for this case Rodrigo José Villagrán Sandoval and Steffany Rebeca Vásquez Barillas. Subsequently, on April 13, 2016, the State appointed Carlos Rafael Asturias Ruiz and Steffany Rebeca Vásquez Barillas as agents. 6. Observations on the preliminary objections. On June 25, 2015, the representatives and the Inter-American Commission forwarded their observations on the preliminary objections filed by the State. 7. Other briefs submitted by the parties and the Commission. On July 30, 2015, the State submitted a brief entitled “Position of the State of Guatemala in relation to the inclusion of new victims in the case […].” Through a note of August 4, 2015, the Secretariat of the Court asked the representatives and the Commission to submit any observations deemed pertinent to the aforementioned brief of the State. On August 30, 2015, the representatives forwarded the observations requested. On August 31, 2015 the Commission submitted the observations requested together with the final list of declarants offered for the public hearing. Finally, on April 19, 2016, the representatives forwarded a total of 212 birth, death and marriage certificates of alleged victims who had suffered forced displacement, persecution and banishment. 8. Public hearing. In an order dated March 28, 2016, 5 the President of the Court called the parties and the Commission to a public hearing which was held on April 28, 2016, during the Court’s 114th regular session at the seat of the Court. 6 During the hearing, the Court received the statements of the alleged victims Juana García Depaz and Napoleón García de Paz (or Napoleón García Depaz), and the expert witness Luis Raúl Francisco Salvadó Cardoza, proposed by the representatives, as well as the expert witness Cristián Alejandro Correa Montt, proposed by the Commission. It also received the observations and final oral arguments of the Commission, the representatives and the State, respectively. The President’s order also requested the statements rendered by affidavit of an alleged victim and two expert witnesses proposed by the representatives, an expert witness proposed by the Commission and three expert witnesses proposed by the State. In a communication dated April 11, 2016, the State withdrew the offer of testimonial and expert evidence. 9. Amici curiae. The Court received amici curiae briefs from: i) Alejandro Valencia Villa on May 3, 2016, on the National Reconciliation Law, amnesties and political crimes in Guatemala; ii) Impunity Watch on May 11, 2016, on the Court’s alleged jurisdiction to rule on an alleged violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and other treaties protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, the Court’s alleged lack of jurisdiction to decree the invalidity of the National Reconciliation Law, as well as individual and collective Available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/asuntos/chichupac_28_03_16.pdf. The hearing was attended by the following: for the Inter-American Commission, Enrique Gil Botero, Commissioner, and Silvia Serrano Guzmán, Erick Acuña Pereda and Jorge Meza Flores, lawyers of the Executive Secretariat of the Commission; for the representatives of the alleged victims, María Dolores Itzep Manuel, attorney, Carlos Enrique de Paz Alvarado, Abelina Osorio Sis, attorney, and Paulina Ixpatá Alvarado de Osorio, President of the Management Board and Legal Representative of the Asociación Bufete Jurídico Popular; and for the State of Guatemala, Víctor Hugo Godoy, Head of the Presidential Commission for Coordination of the Executive’s Human Rights Policies (COPREDEH). 5 6