10 Hernán Javier Cuarán Muchavisoy, and therefore ordered it to pay compensation for moral and material damages caused to the two victims’ next of kin. In a separate ruling, dated February 23, 1995, the Nariño Administrative Law Court also found Colombia liable in the deaths of Julio Milciades Cerón Gómez, Edebraes Norverto Cerón Rojas and Wilian Hamilton Cerón Rojas, and ordered it to pay compensation for the moral and material damages caused to these three victims’ next of kin. The Administrative Law Court of the Council of State upheld this judgment in a January 15, 1996 ruling. Since the Commission was aware of these court decisions when it filed its application on July 6, 1998, one might well ask what the Commission was seeking when it asked the Court to again find Colombia responsible in the death of the above-named persons. The Commission argues that a domestic court can only deliver a finding on the State’s domestic responsibility. The finding of international responsibility must come from an international court. The Commission writes the following under point II of its reply: The administrative law courts established the State’s civil liability, under domestic law, for the execution of five of these victims (emphasis added). Under point II.A of that brief the Commission repeats this language and adds the following: In its answer of December 26, 1998, the State acknowledged its international responsibility for violation of Article 4 of the American Convention, to the detriment of the persons in question (emphasis added). Finally, the Commission asked the Court to find that the dispute over the State’s responsibility for violation of Article 4 of the Convention is closed. 33. The American Convention is a multilateral treaty under which States Parties undertake to respect and ensure the rights and freedoms recognized therein and to comply with any reparations ordered. The Convention is the cornerstone of the system for the protection of human rights in America. This system is a two-tiered system: a local or national tier consisting of each State’s obligation to guarantee the rights and freedoms recognized in the Convention and punish violations committed. If a specific case is not resolved at the local or national level, the Convention provides an international tier where the principal bodies are the Commission and this Court. But as the Preamble to the Convention states, the international protection is “reinforcing or complementing the protection provided by the domestic law of the American states.” Consequently, when a question has been definitively settled under domestic law -to use the language of the Convention- the matter need not be brought to this Court for “approval” or “confirmation.” 34. In the instant case, Colombia’s Council of State, as forum of last instance, held that the State was responsible for the deaths of Artemio Pantoja Ordóñez, Hernán Javier Cuarán Muchavisoy, Julio Milciades Cerón Gómez, Edebraes Norverto Cerón Rojas and Wilian Hamilton Cerón Rojas. Because neither of the parties challenged these court rulings, Colombia’s responsibility became res judicata. * *