22 unless the State sends a complete, unconditional and unqualified acceptance of the facts alleged and proven by the representatives of the next of kin of the victim and by the Commission, […] and a total acknowledgment of its international responsibility for the human rights violations committed, as they have been alleged and proven, its request must be turned down and the Court must decide on the merits of the matter. 94. On March 3, 2003, at the seat of the Court, the President of the Court, Judge Cançado Trindade, received the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Edgar Gutiérrez, who personally delivered to him the brief entitled “documento aclaratorio del reconocimiento de responsabilidad internacional por parte del Estado de Guatemala en el caso 10.636 ‘Myrna Mack Chang’” [document clarifying the acknowledgment of international responsibility by the State of Guatemala in the ‘Myrna Mack Chang’ case No. 10,636,” and he explained its content to him (supra para. 48). In said document, the State: decided, inter alia, pursuant […] to Article 52 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, to unconditionally accept the international responsibility of the State of Guatemala in the Myrna Mack Chang case. Therefore, he communicated to this [...] Court the acquiescence of Guatemala to the claims of the applicant party. […] Pursuant to the general principle set forth in Article 52 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, the State of Guatemala acknowledges the facts stated in the application and it unconditionally accepts its international responsibility in the instant case. Recognition of the violation, in the instant case, of fundamental rights such as the right to life, the right to humane treatment, the right to judicial protection and the right to be heard with due guarantees by a competent judge or court entails, on the one hand, the responsibility already accepted by the State of Guatemala and, on the other, the obligation to investigate the facts that caused the violations, to punish those responsible, and to provide reparation for the damage caused by that grave violation. [T]he State of Guatemala is willing to promptly, adequately and effectively comply with the pecuniary and non-pecuniary reparations decided at the appropriate time by the […] Court. 95. The State also asked the Court, “[p]ursuant to the instant acknowledgment of responsibility,” to disregard the arguments included in the brief answering the application, with respect to reparations for the damage and violation of Article 4 of the Convention. The State also expressed that: [t]he international responsibility and, therefore, the obligation to redress, pursuant to the provisions of the American Convention […] in this case fall on the State and not on the accused persons who may be found responsible. […] [R]egarding the issue of international responsibility it deems that, in principle, the State (any State) is responsible for violation of its obligations, without necessarily identifying the component of malice or negligence by its agents. In other words, without the necessity of “guilt” or negligence by the person who acted. […] With respect to the issue of the individual responsibility that may fall to the persons mentioned in the application, the State […] deems that the […] Corte and the InterAmerican Commission are not competent to rule on the matter, because this is the exclusive responsibility of the Guatemalan authorities.

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