Article 36. Decision on Admissibility
1. Once it has considered the positions of the parties, the Commission shall make a decision on the admissibility of the matter. The reports on admissibility and inadmissibility shall be public and the Commission shall include them in its Annual Report to the General Assembly of the OAS.
2. When an admissibility report is adopted, the petition shall be registered as a case and the proceedings on the merits shall be initiated. The adoption of an admissibility report does not constitute a prejudgment as to the merits of the matter.
Article 34. Other Grounds for Inadmissibility
The Commission shall declare any petition or case inadmissible when:
a. it does not state facts that tend to establish a violation of the rights referred to in Article 27 of these Rules of Procedure;
b. the statements of the petitioner or of the State indicate that it is manifestly groundless or out of order; or
c. supervening information or evidence presented to the Commission reveals that a matter is inadmissible or out of order.
Article 40. Friendly Settlement
1. On its own initiative or at the request of any of the parties, the Commission shall place itself at the disposal of the parties concerned, at any stage of the examination of a petition or case, with a view to reaching a friendly settlement of the matter on the basis of respect for the human rights recognized in the American Convention on Human Rights, the American Declaration and other applicable instruments.
2. The friendly settlement procedure shall be initiated and continue on the basis of the consent of the parties.
3. When it deems it necessary, the Commission may entrust to one or more of its members the task of facilitating negotiations between the parties.
4. The Commission may terminate its intervention in the friendly settlement procedure if it finds that the matter is not susceptible to such a resolution or any of the parties does not consent to its application, decides not to continue it, or does not display the willingness to reach a friendly settlement based on the respect for human rights.
5. If a friendly settlement is reached, the Commission shall adopt a report with a brief statement of the facts and of the solution reached, shall transmit it to the parties concerned and shall publish it. Prior to adopting that report, the Commission shall verify whether the victim of the alleged violation or, as the case may be, his or her successors, have consented to the friendly settlement agreement. In all cases, the friendly settlement must be based on respect for the human rights recognized in the American Convention on Human Rights, the American Declaration and other applicable instruments.
Article 44. Report on the Merits
After the deliberation and vote on the merits of the case, the Commission shall proceed as follows:
1. If it establishes that there was no violation in a given case, it shall so state in its report on the merits. The report shall be transmitted to the parties, and shall be published and included in the Commission’s Annual Report to the OAS General Assembly.
2. If it establishes one or more violations, it shall prepare a preliminary report with the proposals and recommendations it deems pertinent and shall transmit it to the State in question. In so doing, it shall set a deadline by which the State in question must report on the measures adopted to comply with the recommendations. The State shall not be authorized to publish the report until the Commission adopts a decision in this respect.
3. It shall notify the petitioner of the adoption of the report and its transmittal to the State. In the case of States Parties to the American Convention that have accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court, upon notifying the petitioner, the Commission shall give him or her one month to present his or her position as to whether the case should be submitted to the Court. When the petitioner is interested in the submission of the case, he or she should present the following:
a. the position of the victim or the victim’s family members, if different from that of the petitioner;
b. the reasons he or she considers that the case should be referred to the Court; and
c. the claims concerning reparations and costs.
Article 42. Archiving of Petitions and Cases
1. At any time during the proceedings, the Commission may decide to archive the file when it verifies that the grounds for the petition or case do not exist or subsist. The Commission may also decide to archive the case when:
a. the information necessary for the adoption of a decision is unavailable, despite attempts to secure such information; or
b. the unjustified procedural inactivity of the petitioner constitutes a serious indication of lack of interest in the processing of petition.
2. Before considering the archiving of a petition or case, it shall request that the petitioners submit the necessary information and notify the possibility of a decision to archive. Once the time limit specified for that purpose has expired, the Commission shall proceed to adopt the corresponding decision.
3. The decision to archive shall be final, except in the following cases:
a. material error;
b. supervening facts;
c. new information that would have affected the decision of the Commission; or
d. fraud.
Article 45. Referral of the Case to the Court
1. If the State in question has accepted the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court in accordance with Article 62 of the American Convention, and the Commission considers that the State has not complied with the recommendations of the report approved in accordance with Article 50 of the American Convention, it shall refer the case to the Court, unless there is a reasoned decision by an absolute majority of the members of the Commission to the contrary.
2. The Commission shall give fundamental consideration to obtaining justice in the particular case, based, among others, on the following factors:
a. the position of the petitioner;
b. the nature and seriousness of the violation;
c. the need to develop or clarify the case-law of the system; and
d. the future effect of the decision within the legal systems of the Member States.
