4 3. [That it should a]dopt the necessary measures to coordinate measures of protection for María Eugenia López and other active members of the Medellín branch with the petitioners. CONSIDERING: 1. That Colombia is a State Party to the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” or “the American Convention”), Article 1.1 of which establishes the obligation 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. The State also recognized the jurisdiction of the Court on June 21, 1985, pursuant to Article 62 of the Convention. 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 may, at the request of the Commission, adopt such measures as it deems pertinent in matters that have not yet been submitted to its consideration. 3. That, in this regard, Article 25.1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court establish that: At any stage of the proceedings involving cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage 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 a person connected to ASFADDES has been assassinated, which, as the Court has already declared on another occasion1, “constitutes a specific and evident indication of the danger in which members of the said Association are.” Moreover, further threatening acts have occurred against María Eugenia López, all of which justifies prima facie the adoption of measures of protection in her favor. 5. That “a situation of extreme gravity and urgency” persists, which justifies maintaining the measures adopted in favor of the persons protected by the said measures under the orders of the Court of November 11, 1997, January 21, June 18 and August 29, 1998, and August 10 and November 12, 2000 (supra having seen 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12) 6. That, in addition to their essentially preventive nature, the purpose of provisional measures in international human rights law is to ensure the effective protection of fundamental rights, since they seek to avoid irreparable damage to persons. 7. That the State should take the pertinent steps so that the measures ordered by the Court are planned and applied with the participation of the petitioners, so that they are thorough and effective. The petitioners must also collaborate in order to make the measures adopted effective. 8. That, in order to ensure an effective protection of the next of kin of Francisco García, it is advisable that they should be duly identified before the State by the Inter-American Commission. 1 Cf. Alvarez et al. case. Provisional Measures. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of August 10, 2000, fourth considering paragraph.