6 who require special guarantees from the State; (ii) forced disappearances as part of a systematic pattern or practice applied or tolerated by the State, given its character as a crime against humanity; and (iii) extrajudicial executions in the context of a strategy emanating from high-ranking army personnel, culminating in the absence of effective judicial mechanisms to investigate the violations and punish all the perpetrators. 26. In the third place, they allege that the State’s international responsibility must be analyzed taking into account the especially vulnerable condition of Afro-descendant communities and displaced persons in the context of violence and internal armed conflict in Colombia. Therefore, they consider it necessary that the American Convention be interpreted in the light of other relevant international instruments, as laid down in its Article 29. 27. Among the international instruments they consider useful in the interpretation of the rights of the Afro-descendants and their corpus iuris, they highlight the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the General Observation No.23 of the Human Rights Committee; the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 9 Racial Discrimination (UN). They also include the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples , ILO 10 Convention No. 169 , the UN Guiding Principles on Forced Displacement and the rules on displacement derived from Protocol II Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, particularly Article 17; and Article 7(1)(d) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court declaring the forcible transfer of a population as a crime against humanity. 28. They allege that it was the State, which produced the situation affecting the rights of community members, and from the moment the State planned “Operation Genesis”, it knew of the imperative that no violations should be perpetrated against the civilian population. They allege that the State failed to adopt measures to prevent the aforementioned crimes. They allege that given the events prior to “Operation Genesis”, the Cacarica communities received no guarantees of protection by the State, and therefore they consider that the State is responsible for failing in its duties to prevent such crimes and to protect their human rights. 29. They consider that the State’s responsibility for violation of the general obligations set forth in Article 1.1 of the American Convention originated, inter alia, in the action of its agents together with members of the paramilitary campaign and of judicial personnel for the events occurring between February 24 and 27, 1997, the forced displacement, and the impunity still surrounding the events, which have allowed the repetition of new criminal conduct. 30. They allege that if Operation Genesis' objective consisted of attacking a legitimate military target, it should have been carried against the guerillas and not against the civilian population. They allege that the said operation did not involve fighting or confrontations and that the means used were irregular, a method of combining regular, disproportionate operations, with illegal means of the paramilitary campaigns. They maintain that throughout the operation the principles of proportionality and primacy of international humanitarian law were not respected. They allege that the modus operandi employed in the commission of these crimes was no different from that used on repeated occasions and 9 In this regard, they stress that the Permanent Tribunal of Peoples held a hearing on diversity in Colombia in the Cacarica basin and in its conclusions it referred to the urgent necessity for truth, justice and full reparation for the families in the communities living in the humanitarian zones and some families still displaced in Turbo, in particular the women head of household, with respect to "Operation Genesis". Session on Biodiversity in Colombia. Third Hearing held in the humanitarian zone of Nueva Esperanza en Dios in the Cacarica basin from February 24 to 27, 2007. They indicate that in the course of the hearing, Marino López's remains were buried "as an affirmation of community pain, an expression of healing and a rebuilding of memories." Petitioner s' allegations on the merits, received on March 10, 2008, para. 228. 10 In view of the fact that the Committee of Experts in Applying the Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) of the OIT recognized the communities of the Jiguamiandó and Curbaradó basins as tribal peoples in March 2007. CEACR: Individual Observation on the Convention on Indigenous Peoples and Tribes, 1989 (No. 169), Colombia. Publication: 2006. No. 062006COL169. Petitioners' allegations on the merits received on March 10, 2008, paras. 228 and 229.