I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND PURPOSE OF THE DISPUTE 1. The case submitted to the Court. On March 29, 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the case of “Carranza Alarcón” against the Republic of Ecuador (hereinafter “the State” or “Ecuador”). 1 The Commission took it as a proven fact that Ramón Rosendo Carranza Alarcón (hereinafter also “Mr. Carranza” or “Mr. Carranza Alarcón”) was “held in preventive detention from November 1994 to December 1998,” when his guilty verdict was finalized. According to the Commission, the preventive detention was arbitrary, and its duration as well as the duration of the criminal trial were unreasonable. 2. Procedure before the Commission. The procedure before the Commission was as follows: a) Petition. On April 5, 1998, the Commission received the initial petition, presented by José Leonardo Obando Laaz (hereinafter “the representative”). b) Reports on Admissibility and Merits. On November 2, 2011, and May 23, 2017, the Commission approved Admissibility Report No. 154/11 and Merits Report No. 40/17 (hereinafter “Merits Report”) respectively. It drew conclusions 2 and developed recommendations for the State. c) Notification to the State. The Commission sent the State a notification of Report No. 40/17 on June 29, 2017, giving it two months to report back on its compliance with the recommendations. d) Reports on the Commission’s recommendations. In response to Ecuador's requests, on September 27, 2017, December 28, 2017, and January 29, 2018, the Commission granted extensions to the State. However, as it stated when it submitted the case to the Court, the Commission believed that “it did not have concrete information on compliance with the recommendations” detailed in the Merits Report. 3 1 It stated that it submitted the case to this Court due to “the need to obtain justice in this particular case.” It appointed Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño and Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão as its delegates, and then-Assistant Executive Secretary Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Silvia Serrano Guzmán, and Erick Acuña Pereda as legal advisors. 2 The Commission concluded that Ecuador is responsible for violating the rights to personal liberty, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection, established in Articles 7(1), 7(3), 7(5), 8(1), and 8(2) of the American Convention regarding obligations set forth in Articles 1(1) and 2 of the same treaty. 3 Ecuador presented reports to the Commission on its compliance with the Commission's recommendations at least on September 5, 2017, January 4, 2018, and March 29, 2018. It is worth emphasizing that the Commission recommended that the State “make comprehensive reparation to Mr. [...] Carranza” and “adopt the measures of non-repetition necessary to ensure that both the applicable laws and the respective practices in relation to preventive detention are compatible with the standards established in the [Merits Report].” Notably, in a document dated December 26, 2017, sent to the Commission on January 4, 2018, the State, regarding the first recommendation, stated that it had “undertaken efforts” to locate Mr. Carranza, and regarding the second recommendation, noted that in 2014 the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code had gone into effect, modifying the legal framework of preventive detention such that, in the view of the State, “it is in harmony with the standards set by the C[ommission].” In addition, it reported on police personnel training sessions that had a “human rights focus” and included a module on “preventive detention.” The State then sent the Commission a copy of a January 25, 2018, document from Mr. Carranza’s lawyer, addressed to state authorities, in which said lawyer stated he was attempting to locate Mr. Carranza and was “in full agreement with an extension of at least two or three months in order to locate M[r.] C[arranza...] and arrive at an amicable resolution of the case, including pecuniary and non-pecuniary reparation.” In its last presentation, on March 29, 2018, the State reported to the Commission that it had taken various steps to ascertain the whereabouts of Mr. Carranza and that his lawyer had noted that he had “indications that Mr. 3