and asked that its response be presented within 90 days. By note of July 22, 1997, received on August 7, 1997, the Colombian State presented its initial response to the petition. 6. While the petition was being processed with the Commission, the petitioners filed additional observations on October 24 and 28, 1997, April 3 and 7, 1998, and September 8, 1998. The State presented additional information on January 28, 1998 and June 4, 1998. These briefs were duly forwarded to the respective parties. On October 7, 1997, during the IACHR’s 97th session, a hearing was held with the parties in attendance. 7. By a note of March 3, 1998, the Inter-American Commission placed itself at the disposal of the parties with a view to reaching a friendly settlement of the matter. In a note received on April 3, 1998, the petitioners expressed their willingness to “arrive at solutions of this type provided those solutions will protect and preserve the integrity of our peoples’ rights.” In a note dated June 4, 1998, the State agreed to embark upon a friendly settlement process and, for the first round, suggested meetings with the petitioners to determine what forms of dialogue would be acceptable to both parties. 8. In their reply of August 31, 1998, received the following September 8, the petitioners repeated their willingness to engage in the dialogue, but observed that the government’s stated interest in the process did not jibe with the measures it had taken at the national level. The parties did not present any additional information until February 21, 2007, when a communication was received from the petitioners expressing their interest in reactivating their case with the IACHR, arguing that the situation of the U’wa people had deteriorated and that no progress had been made toward a friendly settlement of the matter. 9. Subsequently, the petitioners provided additional information on February 21, 2007 and December 11, 2013. The State, for its part, presented additional observations on March 1, 2007, June 4, 2007 and October 15, 2014. These briefs were duly forwarded to the parties. Precautionary measures 10. At the time the petition was filed, a request seeking precautionary measures was also submitted in which it was alleged that the “oil exploration would inflict irreparable harm and seriously compromise the U’wa people’s ethnic and cultural integrity and identity.” The petitioners therefore asked the Commission to order suspension of the environmental license granted to the oil company until the Commission determined whether the oil exploration authorized in the Samoré block violates the U’wa people’s ethnic and cultural integrity and identity. By note of May 27, 1997, the IACHR requested information from the State concerning the measures taken to protect the U’wa people’s cultural, religious, social and economic integrity in the context of the oil exploration project. That request was reiterated on July 16, 1997, and answered by the State on August 3, 1997. 11. Furthermore, on February 11, 2000, the petitioners filed another request seeking precautionary measures alleging that the Colombian State had authorized oil drilling at a well called Gibraltar, located hundreds of kilometers from the U’wa reservation, with the result that the oil company had started construction of a road that would be harmful of the U’wa’s ancestral territory. The IACHR did not grant those requests. III. THE PARTIES’ POSITIONS A. The petitioners 12. The petitioners state that the U’wa people live in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy in the northeastern quadrant of Colombia, in an area spanning the departments of Santander, Norte de Santander, Boyacá, Arauca and Casanare. They further observe that this indigenous people, numbering some 7,000, is one of Colombia’s most traditional peoples and keeps its traditional culture alive based on the practice of orality. They assert that “the way of life and cultural principles of the U’wa people center around respect for the land and the strengthening of U’wa values.” They allege that the Colombian State has, however, adopted a number 2