2 provisional measures and the representative and the Inter-American Commission presented their observations in this regard. CONSIDERING: 1. That Colombia has been a State Party to the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the American Convention” or “the Convention”) since July 31, 1973, and that it accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court, pursuant to Article 62 of the Convention, on June 21, 1985. 2. That Article 63(2) of the Convention establishes that “[i]n cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons, the Court shall adopt such provisional measures as it deems pertinent in matters it has under consideration. With regard to a case not 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: […] 2. With regard to matters not yet submitted to it, the Court may act at the request of the Commission. […] 6. The beneficiaries of provisional measures or urgent measures ordered by the President may address their comments on the report made by the State directly to the Court. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights shall present observations to the State’s report and to the observations of the beneficiaries or their representatives. * * * 4. That through Order of December 17, 2007, the President of the Court decided to summon the parties to a public hearing in order to hear their arguments on, inter alia, Santiago Canton, delegate, and Juan Pablo Albán, Karen Mansel, and Lilly Ching, advisors; b) for the beneficiaries of the provisional measures: Javier Giraldo Moreno, and c) for the State: Doctor Carlos Franco Echevarría, Director of the Presidential Program for Human Rights; Doctor Clara Inés Vargas Silva, Director of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Janneth Mabel Lozano Olave, Coordinator of the Protection and Information to International Organizations, Office of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Lieutenant Colonel Juan Carlos Gómez Ramírez, Director of Human Rights of the Ministry of National Defense; Doctor Edith Claudia Hernández Aguilar, Coordinator of Defense before international organizations of the Ministry of National Defense; Doctor Francisco Javier Echeverri Lara, Director of the Office of International Matters, Solicitor General of the Nation; Doctor Liliana Romero, Advisor of the Office of International Matters, Solicitor General of the Nation; Jorge Rodríguez, Ministry of Defense, and Doctor Sandra Jeannette Castro Ospina, Head of the National Unit of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law of the Nation’s Public Prosecutor’s Office.