9 no longer necessary. The Commission also stated that its practice in this area does not violate any provision of the Convention and that no State Party to the Convention has ever objected. 42. Article 46(1) of the Convention lists the prerequisites for the admission of a petition and Article 48(1)(a) sets out the procedure to be followed if the Commission "considers the petition . . . admissible." 43. Article 34 (1) (c) of the Commission's Regulations establishes that: 1. The Commission, acting initially through its Secretariat, shall receive and process petitions lodged with it in accordance with the standards set forth below: ... c. If it accepts, in principle, the admissibility of the petition, it shall request information from the government of the State in question and include the pertinent parts of the petition. 44. There is nothing in this procedure that requires an express declaration of admissibility, either at the Secretariat stage or later, when the Commission itself is involved. In requesting information from a government and processing a petition, the admissibility thereof is accepted in principle, provided that the Commission, upon being apprised of the action taken by the Secretariat and deciding to pursue the case (Arts. 34 (3), 35 and 36 of the Regulations of the Commission), does not expressly declare it to be inadmissible (Art. 48 (1) (c) of the Convention). 45. Although the admission of a petition does not require an express and formal act, such an act is necessary if it is found to be inadmissible. The language of both the Convention and the Regulations of the Commission clearly differentiates between these two options (Art. 48 (1) (a) and (c) of the Convention and Arts. 34 (1) (c) and 3, 35 (b) and 41 of its Regulations). An express declaration by the Commission is required if a petition is to be deemed inadmissible. No such requirement is demanded for admissibility. The foregoing holds provided that a State does not raise the issue of admissibility, whereupon the Commission must make a formal statement one way or the other. That issue did not arise in the instant case. 46. The Court, therefore, holds that the Commission's failure to make an express declaration on the question of the admissibility of the instant case is not a valid basis for concluding that such failure barred proper consideration by the Commission and, subsequently, by the Court (Arts. 4651 and 61 (2) of the Convention). VIII 47. In its submissions and at the hearing, the Government argued that the Commission violated Article 48 (1) (f) of the Convention by not promoting a friendly settlement. The Government maintains that this procedure is obligatory and that the conditions for friendly settlements established by Article 45 of the Regulations of the Commission are not applicable because they contradict those set out in the Convention, which is of a higher order. The Government concludes that the failure to attempt a friendly settlement makes the application inadmissible, in accordance with Article 61 (2) of the Convention.