2 Secretariat’s note in this respect, with the purpose of obtaining effective results that may lead to the identification of those responsible and their punishment. 3. To request that the State of Guatemala continue submitting its reports on the provisional measures adopted every six months ans that the Inter–American Comisión on Human Rights submit its observations on the said repots within six weeks of receiving them. 5. The note of the Secretariat of March 26, 2001, in which it requested Guatemala to submit the seventeenth report on the provsional measures in this case, since the period for doing so had expired on February 18, 2001 CONSIDERING: 1. That Guatemala has been a State Party to the American Convention since May 25, 1978, and accepted the obligatory jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987, in accordance with Article 62 of the American Convention on Human Rights. 2. That Article 63.2 of the Convention establishes that the Court shall adopt such provisional measures as it deems pertinent in the matters it has under consideration and, to this end, requires that this should be in cases “of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons [and w]ith respect to a case noy yet submitted to the court, it may act at the request of the Commission.” 3. That, in this regard, Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure establishes that. 1. At any stage of the proceedings involving cases of extreme gravity and urgency and when necessary to avoid irreparable demage to persons, the Court may, at the request of a party or on its own motion, order such provisional measures as it deems pertinent, pursuant to article 63.2 of the Convention. 4. That Article 1.1 of the Convention indicates that it is the duty of States Parties to respect the rights and freedoms recognized therein and to ensure their free and full exercise to all persons subject to their jurisdiction. 5. That, as an essential element of the duty to protect, the State is obliged to investigate the threats and intimidating acts that those protected have suffered or may suffer and, when necessary, punish those responsible for the acts that gave rise to the adoption of provisional measures. 6. That the report requested from the State in the order this Court of August 18, 2000, was not submitted within the corresponding period and that the Court, through its Secretariat, has requested that this report should be submitted and is still awaiting this information. 7. That, in consequence, the Commission has not been able to submit its comments on compliance wich the provisional measures adopted on behalf of Justo Victoriano Martínez Morales and his next of kin. 8. That this Court considers it advisable to maintain the provisional measures that have been adopted in this case and to request the State and the Commission to provide information on the status of compliance with these measures.