on August 25, 2011 with the aim of “assessing the need to maintain the [provisional measures] in force.” 6. The public hearing on provisional measures held on August 25, 2011 during the 92nd Regular Session of the Inter-American Court in Bogota, Colombia1; the oral arguments presented by the parties; as well as the briefs submitted by the State and the representatives on that occasion. CONSIDERING: 1. Brazil has been a State Party to the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the American Convention” or “the Convention”) since September 25, 1992, and in accordance with Article 62 of the Convention, it recognized the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on December 10, 1998. 2. Article 63(2) of the American Convention provides that “in cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons,” the Court may, in matters not yet submitted before it, adopt such provisional measures as it deems pertinent upon the request of the Commission. This provision is itself governed by Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court.2 3. Pursuant to Article 63(2) of the Convention, the obligation to comply with the rulings of the Court corresponds to a basic principle of law on the international responsibility of States, supported by international jurisprudence, according to which the States must comply with their international treaty obligations in good faith (pacta sunt servanda).3 4. In International Human Rights Law, provisional measures not only have a precautionary nature, in the sense that they preserve a legally cognizable situation, but also a fundamentally protective one as they seek to safeguard human rights and avoid irreparable damage to persons. The measures are applied as long as the basic requirements of extreme gravity, urgency, and the need to prevent irreparable harm 1 Present at this hearing were: a) for the Inter-American Commission: Karla Quintana Osuna and Silvia Serrano, Legal Advisers; b) for the representatives: Fernando Delgado, Sandra Carvalho, Deborah Popowski, Fr. Saverio Paolillo, Marta Falqueto, Clara Long, David Attanasio, and Frances Dales; and c) for the State: Hildebrando Tadeu Nascimento Valadares, Camila Serrano Giunchetti, Guilherme Fitzgibbon Alves Pereira, Fabio Balestro Floriano, Ronaldo Gonçalves de Souza, Angelo Roncalli de Ramos Barros, Patrícia Calmon Rangel, Silvana Gallina, and Andrés Luiz da Silva Lima. 2 Rules of Procedure approved by the Court during its LXXXV Regular Session, held from November 16-28, 2009. 3 Cf. Matter of James et al. Provisional Measures regarding Trinidad and Tobago. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of June 14, 1998, Considering clause six; Matter of Alvarado Reyes. Provisional Measures regarding Mexico. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of May 15, 2011, Considering clause four; and Matter of Various Venezuelan Prisons. Provisional Measures regarding Venezuela. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of July 6, 2011, Considering clause three. 2