15 hearing and the personality he revealed led the Court to develop an opinion of the witness that persuaded it to reject his testimony. 59. The Commission has produced information on the social structure of the Saramakas indicating that the tribe displays a strongly matriarchal(*) familial configuration where polygamy occurs frequently. The principal group of relatives appears to be the “bêè”, composed of all the descendants of one single woman. This group assumes responsibility for the actions of any of its members who, in theory, are each in turn responsible to the group as a whole. This means that the compensation payable to one person would be given to the “bêè”, whose representative would distribute it among its members. 60. The Commission also requests compensation for the injured parties and the distribution of such compensation among them. On examining the Commission’s brief, it is evident that the identification of the beneficiaries of such compensation has not been carried out in accordance with Saramaka custom, at least not as the Commission has described it before the Court. It is impossible to determine what legal norm the Commission applied for this purpose. It would appear that the Commission simply took a pragmatic approach. Likewise, on the matter of the amount of compensation and its distribution, the Commission’s brief asserts that it resorted to an “equilibrium system” which took the following factors into account: the age of the victim, his actual and potential income, the number of his dependents and the customs and petitions of the Bushnegroes. 61. The I.L.O. Convention Nº 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1989) has not been accepted by Suriname. Furthermore, under international law there is no conventional or customary rule that would indicate who the successors of a person are. Consequently, the Court has no alternative but to apply general principles of law (Art. 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice). 62. It is a norm common to most legal systems that a person’s successors are his or her children. It is also generally accepted that the spouse has a share in the assets acquired during a marriage; some legal systems also grant the spouse inheritance rights along with the children. If there is no spouse or children, private common law recognizes the ascendants as heirs. It is the Court’s opinion that these rules, generally accepted by the community of nations, should be applied in the instant case, in order to determine the victims’ successors for purposes of compensation. These general legal principles refer to “children,” “spouse,” and “ascendants.” Such terms shall be interpreted according to local law. As already stated (supra, para. 58), here local law is not Surinamese law, for the latter is not effective in the region insofar as family law is concerned. It is necessary, then, to take Saramaka custom into account. That custom will be the basis for the interpretation of those terms, to the degree that it does not contradict the American Convention. Hence, in referring to “ascendants,” the Court shall make no distinction as to sex, even if that might be contrary to Saramaka custom. (*) Probably a more precise anthropological term would be matrilineal.