I INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND CAUSE OF ACTION 1. The case submitted to the Court. On November 6, 2020, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter also “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the case of “Joffre Antonio Aroca Palma and family” v. the Republic of Ecuador (hereinafter “the State,” “the Ecuadorian State” or “Ecuador”). According to the Commission, the case concerns the State’s alleged international responsibility for “the illegal and arbitrary detention and extrajudicial execution” of Joffre Antonio Aroca Palma on February 27, 2001, and “the situation of impunity that continues to prevail in relation to the facts of the case.” 2. Proceedings before the Commission. The proceedings before the Commission were as follows: a) Petition. On June 20, 2002, Winston Joffre Aroca Melgar and Gabriel Palacios Verdesoto filed the initial petition with the Commission. b) Admissibility Report. On July 16, 2009, the Commission approved Admissibility Report No. 59/09, which was notified to the parties on July 21 of the same year. c) Report on the Merits. On May 4, 2019, the Commission approved Merits Report No. 59/19 (hereinafter “the Merits Report” or “Report No. 59/19”), in which it reached a series of conclusions and made several recommendations to the State. 3. Notification to the State. In a communication dated June 6, 2019, the Commission informed the State that it had approved the Merits Report and granted the State two months to inform the Commission that it had complied with its recommendations. The Commission granted five extensions. 4. Submission to the Court. On November 6, 2020, the Commission submitted to the Court details of all the facts and human rights violations involved in the case. As it noted, it did so “taking into account the [the State’s] failure to comply” with its recommendations and “given the need to obtain justice for the [alleged] victims.” 1 This Court notes with concern that more than eighteen years elapsed between the presentation of the initial petition before the Commission and the submission of the case to the Court. 5. Requests of the Commission. The Commission asked the Court to declare the Ecuadorian State’s international responsibility for violating the rights to life, personal integrity, personal liberty, judicial guarantees and judicial protection, established in articles 4(1), 5(1), 7(1), 7(2), 7(3), 7(4), 7(5), 8(1) and 25(1) of the American Convention, read in conjunction with articles 1(1) and 2 thereof, to the detriment, respectively, of Joffre Aroca Palma and the following members of his family: Winston Aroca Melgar, father; Perla Palma Sánchez, mother; Cynthia Aroca Palma, sister; Ronald Aroca Palma, brother; Amalia Melgar Solórzano, paternal grandmother, and Amalia Antonieta Aroca Melgar, paternal aunt. Likewise, the Commission asked the Court to order the State to adopt various measures of reparation. II PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COURT The Commission named the then Commissioner Antonia Urrejola Noguera as its delegate to the Court, and appointed the then Assistant Executive Secretary Marisol Blanchard, Jorge Humberto Meza Flores and Erick Acuña, attorneys from the Executive Secretariat, as legal advisors. 1 4